University of Tennessee, Knoxville University of Tennessee, Knoxville

TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative

Exchange Exchange

Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School

5-2016

HerStory: Dr. Ruth Simmons’ Journey to the Presidency HerStory: Dr. Ruth Simmons’ Journey to the Presidency

Patricia Yvette Jones University of Tennessee - Knoxville, pjones20@vols.utk.edu

Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss

Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons

Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Jones, Patricia Yvette, "HerStory: Dr. Ruth Simmons’ Journey to the Presidency. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2016. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3711

This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact trace@utk.edu.

To the Graduate Council:

I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Patricia Yvette Jones entitled "HerStory: Dr.

Ruth Simmons’ Journey to the Presidency." I have examined the final electronic copy of this

dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Higher Education

Administration.

Patrick J. Biddix, Major Professor

We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance:

Norma T. Mertz, Dorian L. McCoy, Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon

Accepted for the Council:

Carolyn R. Hodges

Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School

(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)

HerStory: Dr. Ruth Simmons’ Journey to the Presidency

A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy

Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Patricia Yvette Jones May 2016

ii

Copyright © 2016 by Patricia Jones All rights reserved.

iii

Dedication

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up in mine, then let us work together.

-Lila Watson

This dissertation is dedicated to everyone that came before me who struggled and

fought for me and all African Americans and women to be a free people, have equal

rights and opportunities. This is to all those who refused to give up on their dreams even

though they were challenged and denied. To everyone in my family who supported me

through this journey – Geoffroy Vallee, Sylvie and Jean-Luc Vallee, Je vous remercie. Je

vous aime. My mother, Leona Boyd; my father, Curtis Jones and stepfather Robert

Boswell; my sisters and brothers, Leon, Shaleen, Charity, Quentin and Shantel; my aunts

Sonya, Unity, Jenny and Kim and my cousins Summer (much love) and Storm. I also

dedicate this dissertation to Zion, my son, know that I love you all!!! Oh, and my two

four legged boys Redd Dog and Peekoo J

iv

Acknowledgements

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise

from, how you can still come out of it

-Maya Angelou

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within

-Maya Angelou

Completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the

incredible influence of so many individuals to whom I owe my deepest appreciation and

gratitude. While everyone who has assisted in the success of this work may not be

named, please know that you are certainly remembered. In addition, there have been a

great number of people who have helped me in my career both academically and

professionally.

I am truly thankful for each of my committee members for their support of this

research project and for my personal and academic development. Dr. Biddix, you have

not only advised me, you have inspired, guided and encouraged me. Dr. Mertz, for all the

guidance you provided, when we first met and through this entire process you have

enlightened me. Many who encounter you may not realize the significance of the

guidance you provide, your constructive criticism is and was much needed and

appreciated. Dr. Barb, without you I would have long abandoned the idea that led this

study. It was because of the courses you taught that nurtured the idea that I had and began

the growing process. Dr. McCoy, for your continuous support and guidance. Thank you

all.

v

While here in Tennessee I have to thank all those in my social circle all of my

friends and mentors, Dr. Leslie Fisher, Cheria Morris, Wendy Bennett, Dr. Tracia Cloud,

Wendy Woodard, The Lutz Family, Rev. Jacqueline Braggs, Rev. Latisha Reeves, Linda

Parris-Bailey and Amy Jordan. It is because of each and every one of you that when I

reached out someone was there to offer your hand even in those moments when I refused

or neglected to do so you still extended your hand and held on. Thank you.

I must thank the ACF Divas: Margo Miller, and KJ. Community Shares: Shelley,

Amber and Flo. You were there for me when no one else was and you listened. You

heard every word that I spoke and you continuously reminded me not to give up and stay

strong!!! You were my advisors, counselors and stronghold. You refused to let me give

up regardless of how hopeless I felt. You reminded me to fight. You challenged me,

inspired me and gave me hope. Thank you for everything you have done!!!

A special thanks to Dr. Ruth Simmons and Helen Pallas-Viola for agreeing to be

interview and openly shared your experiences. You and all that you do and have done

are deeply appreciated.

STAY STRONG!!!

vi

Abstract

This study’s goal is to give voice to the experiences of one individual: Dr. Ruth

Simmons, the first woman president of Brown University and the first African American

president of an Ivy League institution. Simmons’ HerStory is a narrative of her becoming

rather than being. It is a story of her moving forward. In this study Simmons is permitted

to take back her narrative by telling HerStory, in her own words and along with sharing

her ethos. HerStory provides insight into and a deep understanding of how Simmons

became the president and what shaped her development spanning from her childhood to

her presidency at Brown. Simmons’ multiple firsts place her in a unique category and

demonstrates the need for more opportunities to be created for African American women

to be presidents of four-year PWIs such as Ivy League and doctorate granting institutions.

Simmons is an activist, change agent, and transformational leader. Black

feminism was used as a lens to examine Simmons’ HerStory while applying Few,

Stephens and Rouse-Arnett’s (2003) three dimensions of power that empower women,

personal, interpersonal and institutional. These themes describe ways in which others

empowered Simmons, and how Simmons empowered herself and others, as well as

society on her journey to the presidency.

vii

Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1African American Women and the College Presidency ..................................................... 3Problem Statement .............................................................................................................. 5Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................... 7Significance of the Study .................................................................................................... 7Research Questions ............................................................................................................. 8Context ................................................................................................................................ 9Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 11

Activism ........................................................................................................................ 11Change Agent ................................................................................................................ 11Transformational Leaders ............................................................................................. 12Black Feminist Theory .................................................................................................. 13

Organization of the Study ................................................................................................. 17Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 19Women Firsts .................................................................................................................... 19First Women Presidents in Higher Education ................................................................... 20Pathway to the Presidency ................................................................................................ 21

People of Color ............................................................................................................. 22African American Women ............................................................................................ 23Women in the Pipeline .................................................................................................. 24

Challenges and Barriers for Women in Higher Education ............................................... 25Challenges and Barriers for African American Women in Higher Education ................. 27Summary ........................................................................................................................... 33Chapter 3 Methodology ................................................................................................... 34

Narrative Inquiry ........................................................................................................... 35Research Procedures ......................................................................................................... 37

Participant Selection ..................................................................................................... 37Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 38Transcription ................................................................................................................. 42Document and Data Analysis ........................................................................................ 43Respondent Validation/Member Checking ................................................................... 44Delimitations and Limitations ....................................................................................... 45Trustworthiness ............................................................................................................. 48

Researcher Positionality .................................................................................................... 49Reflexivity ..................................................................................................................... 53Writing for a Broader Audience ................................................................................... 54

Summary ........................................................................................................................... 56Chapter 4 HerStory .......................................................................................................... 57HerStory, Their Words ...................................................................................................... 58

Childhood ...................................................................................................................... 58Mentor and Influence .................................................................................................... 61Journey to Higher Education ........................................................................................ 62

viii

Journey to the Presidency ............................................................................................. 66Princeton ....................................................................................................................... 68Smith College................................................................................................................ 72Brown University .......................................................................................................... 77

Summary ........................................................................................................................... 84Chapter 5 HerStory: In Her Own Words ......................................................................... 85HerStory, Her Words ........................................................................................................ 85

Childhood ...................................................................................................................... 86Society ........................................................................................................................... 88Education ...................................................................................................................... 91Mentor and Influence .................................................................................................... 93Journey to Higher Education ...................................................................................... 100Journey to the Presidency ........................................................................................... 110Presidency ................................................................................................................... 127

Smith. ...................................................................................................................... 129Brown. ..................................................................................................................... 133

Summary ......................................................................................................................... 152Chapter 6 Discussion ..................................................................................................... 153

Juxtaposition ............................................................................................................... 154Challenges ................................................................................................................... 158Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................... 167

Summary ......................................................................................................................... 178Final Thoughts ............................................................................................................ 179

Epilogue: My Journey ..................................................................................................... 180References ....................................................................................................................... 187Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 212Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 213HerStory: Her Ethos ........................................................................................................ 213

On Being the First African American President of an Ivy League ............................. 217On Her Style of Governance ....................................................................................... 219On Not Changing Who You Are ................................................................................ 225On the Role of Parents ................................................................................................ 227On Students ................................................................................................................. 228On Education as a Movement ..................................................................................... 230On the Importance of Educating Young Girls and Empowering Women .................. 234On the Future of Young Boys ..................................................................................... 238On Civility .................................................................................................................. 240

Summary ......................................................................................................................... 255Appendix B ..................................................................................................................... 256Appendix C ..................................................................................................................... 260Appendix D ..................................................................................................................... 263Appendix E ..................................................................................................................... 265Appendix F...................................................................................................................... 266Appendix G ..................................................................................................................... 270

ix

Appendix H ..................................................................................................................... 272Appendix I ...................................................................................................................... 286Vita .................................................................................................................................. 304

1

Chapter 1

Introduction

Although African American women have increasingly emerged as high achievers

and leaders in the general labor force, “colleges and universities . . . have not contributed

substantively to the successful emergence of these women in the [higher education] work

force . . . when advancement occurs . . . it is generally at a slow rate of progress” (Young,

1984, p. 133). During the 1980s, African American women administrators significantly

increased their share of positions in higher education, most of them securing positions in

non-predominately white institutions (PWIs)1. According to the American Council of

Education2 (Benjamin, 1997), African American women made up 2.9% of full-time

administrators in 1979; a decade later, the percentage increased to 4.2%, representing an

87% change. African American women administrators in higher education held more

positions than African American women faculty (Benjamin, 1997), but their status was

still unimpressive (Moses, 1997). Compared to their white counterparts, African

American women are still underrepresented in administrative positions today.

Today’s African American women leaders in higher education stand on the

shoulders of giants, those past African American women leaders who paved the way for

them (Alston & McClellan, 2011). Research shows that most of the administrative

positions held by African American women have been in the areas of academic support,

1For the purpose of this study, predominantly white institutions are defined as those that are not historically Black and that have a majority white student population.2Because the ACE presidential data are not reported in disaggregated numbers by both gender and ethnicity, extracting data for African American females and determining the actual number of African American female presidents are difficult.

2

student services, and diversity. Very few people of color hold the top positions in any of

these areas, except for chief diversity officers, with almost 70% being African American

(ACE, 2013). The underrepresentation of people of color, particularly African American

women, is even greater in senior-level administrative positions, such as dean, provost,

and vice president (ACE, 2013). Those who manage to advance beyond mid-management

positions are often locked into assistant or associate positions that are typically peripheral

to decision-making (Mosley, 1980) and that provide little opportunity for advancement.

Of the three executive positions most likely to lead to the college presidency – chief

academic officer, academic dean, and chief student affairs officer – women of color have

made the greatest progress as chief student affairs officers.

In 2006, 19% of all female presidents were women of color, 8.1% of whom were

African American (King & Gomez, 2007). King and Gomez’s (2007) findings indicated

African American women not only were previously in senior leadership roles but also

had been college presidents at community colleges and HBCUs. When institution type

was examined, African American women presidents were highly represented at

community colleges (40%) compared to those at doctorate granting institutions (8%)

(Ryu, 2010). African American women also represented 23% of HBCUs presidents.

Even today, few African American women are presidents of PWIs, more

specifically four-year PWIs. According to the Executive Compensation report for private

colleges in 2011 and for public colleges in 2012, seven African American women were

presidents of PWIs excluding community colleges. There were 550 chief executives at

3

500 private nonprofit colleges in the United States during 2011, and 212 chief executives

at 191 public universities and systems in the United States during 2012.

African American Women and the College Presidency

Black3 women’s journey and struggle to the college and university presidency is

an example of the “first dimension” of Black women’s activism within higher education

(Collins, 2000, p. 204). Several women resisted the oppressive structures within higher

education by undermining those structures and creating spheres of influence. Resistance

and activism within higher education for Black women began with Dr. Mary McLeod

Bethune, the founder and principal of the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for

Negro Girls, established in 1904. Growing from six students, the school merged with an

African American boys’ school, eventually becoming the Bethune-Cookman School,

whose quality far surpassed the educational standards for African American students and

rivaled those for white schools. Bethune worked tirelessly to ensure funding for the

school and to showcase for tourists and donors what educated African Americans could

do. President of the college from 1923 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1947, Dr. Bethune was

3 The term Black is used interchangeably with African American throughout this dissertation because Blacks, like Asians, Latinos and other people of color, constitute a specific racial group, thus denoted as a proper noun by being capitalized. On the other hand, the word white, which is not a proper noun because whites do not constitute a specific racial group, is not capitalized. For the same reason, the term women of color is not capitalized. The term minority is not used to describe people of color for several reasons. First, the term is offensive to some people of color. Second, other groups can, or should, be considered minorities, such as those with mental or physical disabilities, those from cultures different than American mainstream culture, and those for whom English is not their first language. Thus, the term people of color is used in an effort to be more precise and to reduce the number of people offended by my choice of language.

4

one of the few women serving as a college president at that time and the only African

American female president until the 1950s (Bethune-Cookman College, 2002). Thus, Dr.

Bethune’s leadership as a college president began a new phase for African American

women in higher education.

Dr. Bethune paved the way for other African American women, such as Willa

Player. During Ms. Player’s tenure at Bennett College for Women from 1955 until 1966,

she was known for boosting the profile of Bennett as one of the first Black colleges to be

accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). In addition, she

was the first female African American in the country to be named president of an

accredited four-year liberal arts college (New York Times, 2003). Other women among

the first to hold presidencies were Dr. Rosetta Wheadon, the first African American

woman to become founding president of a community college, State Community College

in 1967 (Robinson, 1996); Ms. Leadie Clark, the first African American woman

chancellor of a community college district in Los Angeles Southwest College, California

in 1977 (Robinson, 1996); Mable Parker McLean, J.D., the ninth president of Barber-

Scotia College in 1975 (Smith, 1982); Dr. Reatha Clark King, the first African American

woman to become president of Metropolitan State University in 1977; and Dr. Yvonne

Taylor, president of Wilberforce University in 1984 (Harvey, 1999).

Gradually, progress continued as more African American women were appointed

college presidents. Three African American presidents of four-year colleges and

universities served simultaneously from 1987 through 1992 at historically Black colleges

and universities (HBCUs) (Harris, Wright, & Msengi, 2011): Dr. Johnetta Besch Cole at

5

Spelman, Dr. Gloria Dean Randle Scott at Bennett College for Women, and Dr. Niara

Susarkasa at Lincoln University (Spelmen College, 2003; Bennett College, 2002). During

this time, several African American women also served as presidents of two-year

colleges: Del Anderson at San Jose City College, Dr. Constance Carroll at Saddleback

College, Dr. Ruth Burgos-Sasser at San Antonio College, and Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton at

Cuyahoga Community College (Chenoweth, 2007).

Two African American women who recently served as presidents at four-year

PWIs are Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, the first African American woman to be president of a

major research university, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Rensselaer Polytechnic

Institute, 2012); and Dr. Ruth Simmons, the 18th president and first woman president of

Brown University, and the first African American president of an Ivy League institution

(Brown University, 2013).

Problem Statement

College and university senior leaders are not representative of the nation as a

whole. According to the 2013 U.S. Census, people of color are projected to outnumber

non-Latino whites by 2035. If this lack of representation in higher education continues,

institutions of higher education run the risk of becoming places where relevance is

diminished and whose graduates are unprepared for leadership situations in which the

public’s backgrounds and perspectives differ from their own (Princeton University,

2013).

Using the theory of representative bureaucracy, researchers have studied the

importance of having leaders in higher education institutions who reflect the student

6

population’s demographic composition (Flowers, 2003; Jackson, 2004). Research

findings suggest that the more diverse a leadership group, the more responsive it is to a

highly diverse institution’s many concerns (Lloyd-Jones, 2011). According to the report

Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research-based Perspective, a diverse population

of faculty, staff, and students yields tremendous educational benefits, including

opportunities for cognitive and personal growth; chances for improving leadership

abilities; and a rich social environment for promoting all students’ learning and

development. Although diversification’s benefits in higher education institutions are

clear, diversification is not reflected at every administrative level, specifically the

presidency of these institutions.

According to Smith (2013), documenting the experiences of African American

women presidents of four-year PWIs is important in order to develop strategies that

address these presidents’ concerns. These experiences afford young women, particularly

young African American women aspiring to be college presidents, a model to follow in

striving to reach their career goals and aspirations.

Documenting and sharing the experiences of African American women

presidents, specifically those heading four-year PWIs, allows for questions to be asked

and addressed regarding what is hindering and/or preventing African American women

from pursuing the presidency of higher education institutions. As Harris, Wright, and

Msengi (2011) noted, “African American female college/university administrators are at

risk of not being in the pipeline that leads to becoming president” (p. 91). A central

purpose of this study is to provide insight into African American women’s journey to

7

becoming presidents of higher education institutions. This research is important because

it represents a discourse and a perspective that has historically been silenced, dismissed

and ignored.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to draw insight from how Dr. Ruth Simmons, the first

African American president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of

Brown University, journeyed to the presidency of an Ivy League institution and what

shaped her development. I believe HerStory4 will provide hope and inspiration to African

American women and to other women striving to reach their career goals outside of

academia as well as those coming through the educational pipeline. This research will

also provide an important and credible narrative about an African American president’s

HerStory, within and outside of academia. As with most African American women

presidents, HerStory has largely gone untold in academic research.

Significance of the Study

A study examining an African American female president’s experiences at a four-

year PWI is needed because despite rich HerStories in higher education, they remain

absent from educational literature (Stroud, 2009; Wolfe, 2010; Zamani, 2003). Thus,

African American women’s “powerful and poetic voices” (Marable, 1998, p. viii) must

not continue to be ignored or underestimated. As Bailey (2010) noted, a qualitative study

of African American women presidents—specifically, at PWIs—would provide a clearer

4 Herstory is a neologism coined in the late 1960s as part of a feminist critique of conventional historiography. In feminist discourse the term refers to history (re-stated as “his story”) written from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of women, or told from a woman’s point of view.

8

picture of their experiences. This study’s goal is to give voice to the experiences of one

individual: Dr. Ruth Simmons, the first woman president of Brown University and the

first African American president of an Ivy League institution. HerStory not only offers

unique insight into how Dr. Simmons journeyed to the presidency of an Ivy League

institution and what shaped her development but also adds to the current literature by

addressing a gap that exists due to the absence of in-depth narratives about African

American women presidents of PWIs. Further it, helps women, particularly African

Americans, aspiring to be college presidents, higher education scholars, administrators,

stakeholders and those outside of academia, extend their understanding of how to be

successful.

Research Questions

The following research questions will guide this study:

• What was the experience of the first African American woman college president

of an Ivy League institution?

• What strengths and attributes did the first African American woman college

president use to achieve the presidency of an Ivy League institution?

• What challenges and barriers did the first African American woman college

president overcome in achieving the presidency of an Ivy League institution?

9

Context

Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.

-Maya Angelou

Though Black women are subject to numerous forms of oppression, they are not

mere victims (Turner-Essel, 2013). Black women historically have engaged in numerous

acts of resistance through refusing to accept or comply, or through attempting to prevent

something by action and/or argument. The act of resistance varies. For some women,

resistance is characterized by opposing oppression; for others, it is proactively searching

for and enacting alternative realities (Turner-Essel, 2013). According to Ward (1996),

resistance as it specifically applies to Black women is “the refusal to allow oneself to be

stifled by victimization or to accept an ideology of victim-blame” (p. 89). Resistance is

closely linked to activism, intentional efforts to promote, impede or direct social,

political, or economic change (Collins, 2000). Popova (2010) defined activism as “any

action or set of actions, be it organized, grassroots or self-initiated, that aims to resolve a

problem that diminishes the quality of life of individuals, communities or society” (para.

5). Baumgardner and Richards (2000) argued that a “regular woman becomes an activist

when she rights some glaring human mistake, or recognizes a positive model of equality

and takes the opportunity to build on it” (p. 148). Resistance represents a refusal to accept

existing notions of oppressive structures, whereas activism actively challenges and/or

changes those structures.

Black women possess a long legacy of both resistance and activism in the United

States. Numerous scholars have described ways in which Black women have actively

10

struggled throughout history to question, confront, resist, and change prevailing

structures of domination by participating in formally organized social movements for

institutional transformation and legal, political and economic equality (Collins, 1990;

Davis, 1981; hooks, 1997; James, 1999; Olson, 2001). Such efforts represent direct

stances against oppressive structures. Other significant practices challenging oppression

have been a matter of everyday life and survival for Black women, who have constructed

and passed down psychological strategies for overcoming the ubiquitous degradation of

Black female existence. These mechanisms represent a challenge to the status quo by

replacing negative concepts of Black womanhood with more affirming definitions and

representations, and by promoting a worldview that sees Black women’s experiences as

significant (Collins, 2000).

Collins (2000) emphasized that, for many Black women, ensuring personal and

family survival is a valid but under-acknowledged aspect of activism against racial and

class oppression. She argued that historically “struggles to transform United States

educational, economic, and political institutions could not have been sustained” without

an equally important struggle for group and individual survival (p. 202). Struggles for

institutional transformation are tied with what Collins referred to as the “first dimension”

of Black women’s activism (p. 204): the struggle for group survival. Those struggles

consist of actions taken to create Black female spheres of influence within existing social

structures and serve to resist oppressive forces primarily by undermining them. They are

usually subtle, avoiding directly challenging oppressive structures, but are no less

powerful.

11

Theoretical Framework

A truly participatory development process cannot be generated spontaneously, given the existing power relations at all levels and the deep-rooted dependency relationships. It requires a catalyst. The catalyst or change agent who can break this vicious circle is a

new type of activist . . . .

-Wignaraja

Activism

Martin, Hanson, Fontaine and McChesney (2007) defined activism as “everyday

actions by individuals that foster new social networks or power dynamics” (p. 79). They

also explored how “small acts” of “individuals embedded in communities” transform

social relations in ways that could potentially cultivate social change. Activism is a

precursor to political action. People can be activists by simply using their power as

individuals, through small acts, to build social connections without necessarily addressing

specific political issues (Martin et al., 2007).

Aspects of activism such as consciousness, intentionality, experience, and agency

that are often unaccounted for or assumed can be seen through the prism of women’s

lives (Hodges & Brooks, 2007). Few women regard what they are doing as activism, yet

they create social connections and social changes that address community problems

(Hodges & Brooks, 2007). Martin et al. (2007) argued that not only resisting and

protesting should count as activism, but also “building relationships between people that

foster change in a community” (p. 1).

Change Agent

A change agent’s primary role is stirring people’s creative energies and working

with groups to enable them to better control their own situations. This process has been

12

called the “pedagogy of empowering” (Burkey, 1993). In The Change Agents Guide to

Innovation in Education, Havelock (1973) defined a change agent as an individual

facilitating planned change or planned innovation. Burkey (1993) described a change

agent as a person who initiates change. The direction of change is determined by

interacting with the people with whom the change agent is working rather than the

change agent acting alone or on behalf of outside interests.

Transformational Leaders

Bass and Riggio (2008) described transformational leaders as those who inspire

others to achieve extraordinary outcomes and develop their own leadership capacity.

Transformational leaders help others grow and develop into leaders by responding to the

needs of others through empowering them and aligning the objectives and goals of the

individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger organization. According to

Pennings (2007), transformational leaders seek opportunities for change to grow,

innovate, and improve their environment. Taking charge of change, these leaders instill

“a sense of adventure in others, look for ways to radically alter the status quo, and …

scan the environment for new and fresh ideas. Leaders always search for opportunities to

do what has never been done” (Kouzes & Posner, 2002, p. 177).

Thus, transformational leaders reflect a vision for the future, influence others,

inspire and encourage others, and possess high performance expectations. As a result,

people are motivated to succeed, and institutions are strengthened and transformed.

Transformational leadership is a process whereby ordinary people bring forth the best in

themselves and others (Pennings, 2007). Even though the transformational leader

13

provides initiatives to spark transformation, the transformational process requires the

follower’s and leader’s shared motives, values, and goals (Northhouse, 2007). According

to Pennings (2007) and Chekwa (2001), transformational leaders are change agents.

Black Feminist Theory

Black women are informed and shaped not only by their own personal experiences, but the experiences of those around them and those that came before them. If the influence one’s own experience (or that of another) has on one’s vision and construction of the world in which one lives is acknowledged, then Black Feminist Theory is not simply a

method for viewing, constructing, or even deconstructing social reality. Rather, it is a way of life and living in general.

-Jewel Amoah

Applying an appropriate theoretical framework for this study was challenging

because many theories were unable to act as a guiding lens when accounting for the

multiple roles and identities of African American women. Black feminist theory is an

appropriate framework to investigate African American women’s experiences in higher

education because it speaks directly to African American women’s lived experiences

(Collins, 2000; Howard-Hamilton, 2003; Walker, 2003).

Several concepts must be explained prior to discussing Black feminist theory.

First is the significance of the term Black feminism:

In the United States, the term Black Feminism disrupts the racism inherent in

presenting feminism as a “for-Whites-only” ideology and political movement.

Inserting the adjective Black challenges the assumed White and Black American

women. Since many White women think that Black women lack feminist

consciousness, the term Black feminism both highlights the contradictions

14

underlying the assumed Whiteness of feminism and reminds White women that

they are neither the only nor the normative “feminists.” (Collins, 1998, p. 67).

Secondly, there is ambiguity in determining who can be considered a Black

feminist and what constitutes Black feminism (Hazelsapien, 2014). Due to the varying

interpretations attached to the terms Black feminism and Black feminist that go beyond

this study’s scope, defining those terms as they relate to this study is essential. For this

study’s purpose, Black feminism and Black feminist are defined as follows,

Taken together, the ideas of Anna Julia Cooper, Pauli Murray, bell hooks, Alice

Walker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other Black women intellectuals too numerous to

mention suggest a powerful answer to the question ‘What is Black Feminism?’

Inherent in their words and deeds is a definition of Black Feminism as a process

of self-conscious struggle that empowers women and men to actualize a humanist

vision of community. (Collins, 1990, p. 39)

Thirdly, in asserting the unique experience of African American women, it must

not be assumed that all African American women share the same experience or self-

identify as a Black feminist. According to Collins (1998),

Because it challenges Black women to confront their own views on sexism and

women’s oppression, the term Black feminism also makes many African-

American women uncomfortable. Even though they support the global feminist

ideas, large numbers of African-American women reject the term feminism

because of its perceived association with Whiteness. (p. 67)

15

No other group in America has had their identity socialized out of existence as

much as African American women, who are seldom recognized as a separate and distinct

group (hooks, 1981). When African American people are discussed, the focus tends to be

on African American men. When women are discussed, the focus tends to be on white

women (hooks, 1981). Giddings (1984) offered a compelling historical interpretation of

how African American women leaders have successfully transcended white women’s

racism and African American men’s sexism, underscoring the notion that for African

American women the causes of racial injustice and women’s rights are inextricably

linked. According to Crenshaw (1989), one cannot understand the struggle of women of

color without considering the intersection of their racial and gendered identities. Some

feminists suggest that racism, not sexism, is the problem African American women face

and that African American women can simply divorce themselves from being African

American and female. Thus, African American women are in a unique category,

positioning them to experience the effects of being both African American and women

(Collins, 1990). Houston (2004) noted,

While African American women’s experiences of womanhood may overlap with

those of both White women and other women of color, they will also differ from

them in important ways; and their experience of African Americanness may

overlap with those of African American men, but will significantly differ from

them as well. (p. 157)

Black feminist theory aims to conceptualize “African-American women’s

struggles against intersecting oppressions” (Collins, 1990, p. 32). As an interdisciplinary

16

theoretical framework, this theory conceptualizes and analyzes multiple intersecting

identities’ and oppressions’ effects on Black women’s experiences, emphasizing Black

women’s methods of coping, surviving, resisting, and acting to change systems of

domination (hooks, 1995).

Collins (2000) emphasized the ongoing interplay between Black women’s

oppression and activism. An example of this interplay is the life of Sojourner Truth.

Truth’s ability to cross borders of race, class, gender, and geography is symbolic of Black

women’s freedom struggles (Collins, 2000). Truth could move in and out of several

worlds while expanding her definition of freedom. Collins (2000) noted Truth’s “mobility

as a ‘sojourner’ among multiple outsider-within locations highlights the importance of

social contexts in determining truth” (p.231). Dr. Simmons’ journey has been one of a

“sojourner” crossing racial, class, gender, geographical, educational, and academic

institutional borders. As Collins (2000) emphasized, intellectuals in the academy can

make a conscious effort to participate in this “migration” “to the borderlands, boundaries,

or outsider-within locations linking communities of differential power” (p. 233).

Individual migration involves border crossing and positive transformation of previously

segregated spaces.

Black feminists serve as agents of social change for their communities and also

are accountable for how they represent and validate the knowledge claims of those

communities in their research and creative writings (Collins, 1991, 1998; hooks, 1984).

Black feminists incorporate an activist approach to research through a three-phase

process: knowledge, consciousness, and empowerment. The concept of knowledge begins

17

with validating the individual’s experience as an authoritative standpoint (hooks, 1984).

Acknowledging abuse, naming it, and recognizing that it happened are all examples of

this phase. Consciousness is moving beyond knowing to understanding what factors

influence that abuse experience. During this phase, ideas, images, symbols, and

ideologies are manipulated (Collins, 1991).

Finally, Black feminists emphasize empowerment within the context of Black

women’s lives; this emphasis is the first step toward social change. According to Few,

Stephens and Rouse-Arnett (2003), empowering women requires a contextualized

understanding of power in three dimensions. These three dimensions will be used to

examine and explain in narrative form the main points to be studied such as key factors,

concepts, or variables, and presumed relationships (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Organization of the Study

Chapter One provided the background, problem statement, significance, purpose

of study, research questions, and theoretical framework. While discussing the theoretical

framework, I identified similarities among activists, change agents, and transformational

leaders. I ended with Black feminism and its connection with activism, change agents,

and transformational leaders. Chapter Two includes salient points about women and their

journey to the presidency based on the existing body of literature and research studies.

Chapter Three outlines the study’s design, data collection, my interview with Dr.

Simmons, and limitations. It also describes my positionality and the role of the theoretical

framework used for this study’s design and analysis. Trustworthiness and ethical

considerations are also addressed. Chapter Four introduces Dr. Simmons’ HerStory,

18

biographical information, and experiences from birth up to retirement as president of

Brown University, based on publically available information. Chapter Five presents Dr.

Simmons’ HerStory in her own words. Chapter Six includes the discussion, summary of

findings, conclusion, and reflection on my journey. The Appendix provide HerStory: Her

Ethos: an addendum that builds upon Chapter Five by allowing Dr. Simmons to voice her

authentic expression of her values and beliefs. The Appendix also includes an archive

log, the institutional review board forms, the interview protocol, timelines, copies of the

communications with Dr. Simmons, and Dr. Simmons’ Vita.

19

Chapter 2

Literature Review

This chapter’s literature review provides background and context for this study.

Major themes: women firsts, pathway to the presidency, and challenges and barriers for

women in higher education are introduced as context and followed by a review of the

relevant and related research.

Women Firsts

In the past 15 years, several women have broken through gender barriers by

becoming “firsts” and rising to the top of male-dominated industries ranging from the

White House to the United States’ Fortune 500 companies. For example, Janet Yellen

took over the Federal Reserve, making her one of the most powerful women in the world.

Mary Barra was the first woman to lead a global automaker, General Motors Company,

and the first woman to lead one of the top-three automotive manufactures. Virginia

Rometty became the first female CEO of IBM in the company’s 100-year history. Vice

Admiral Michelle Howard was the first woman and first African American to hold the

number-two spot in the United States Navy. Condoleezza Rice became the first African

American woman Secretary of State. Cristeta Comerford became the first woman White

House executive chef. Nancy Pelosi was the first woman to become Speaker of the

House. Hillary Clinton was the first woman to win a Presidential Primary Contest. Peggy

Whitson, an American astronaut, became the first woman to command the International

Space Station. Julia Pierson was appointed as the first woman director of the Secret

20

Service. Avril Haines was the first female Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, deputy

director.

Yet, while these “firsts” are notable, the gender gap and lack of racial diversity in

the workplace remains vast. Women and people of color are underrepresented in

leadership positions in many fields, including in our nation’s institutions of higher

education.

First Women Presidents in Higher Education

In the early 1900s, women were unlikely to achieve leadership positions on

college campuses (Miller-Bernal, 2004). Women’s movement into power positions, such

as the presidency or chief executive officer, was a significant factor in the development

of women’s colleges, including Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and Trinity, in the late nineteenth

century (Brown, 2001). Wellesley was the first college where a woman was chief

executive officer. Alice Freeman Palmer’s tenure at Wellesley (1881-1887) was marked

by collaboration and accessibility (Brown, 2001).

Most female presidents were at Catholic institutions until the early 1960s

(Introcaso, 2001). Their presence in an otherwise male-dominated arena paved the way

for future generations of women. Intocaso (2001) labeled these women “sister

presidents.”

Only within the last 30 years have women been appointed to lead major research

universities in the United States. Yet in education, which attracts considerably more

women than do other career fields, women continue to be underrepresented as presidents

of colleges and universities. The exceptional women who have succeeded punctuate

21

women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions in higher education. For example,

Hanna Gray, a recognized educational pioneer, was Yale University’s provost before

becoming president of the University of Chicago in 1978. Gray is the first woman whose

leadership resulted in a thriving research university. Judith Rodin became the first woman

to lead an Ivy League institution, the University of Pennsylvania, in 1994. Shirley M.

Tilghman became Princeton’s first female president in 2001. Susan Hockfield was

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s first female president in 2004. Drew Gilpin

Faust, who became the first woman President of Harvard University in 2007, is among a

cohort of women who broke through academia’s glass ceiling in the past 15 years. As

Brown University’s first female president, Ruth Simmons was the first African American

leader of an Ivy League institution in 2001.

Pathway to the Presidency

Women represent almost half of all senior-level administrators in higher

education and nearly one quarter of college presidents. Women comprised 23% of

college presidents in 2006, up from 9.5% two decades earlier (King & Gomez, 2007). In

1975, there were 148 women college presidents (Touchton et al., 1993); more than 600

women led institutions of higher education in 2008 (Touchton, 2008).

However, women made the greatest inroads in community colleges, where they

held 52% of senior leadership positions (Touchton, 2008). Combining all institution

types, women represent 31% of executive vice presidents; 38% of Chief Academic

Officers (CAOs) at the campus level and 50% at the system or central level; 36% of all

academic college deans (excluding colleges of education and nursing); between 43% and

22

49% of chief administrative, external affairs, and student affairs officers; and 55% of

diversity officers (King & Gomez, 2007).

People of Color

People of color have taken on the role of president for instance, according to King

and Gomez (2007) 45% African Americans and 60% Latinos. They were also more likely

than white presidents to lead larger institutions. King and Gomez (2007) found only 4%

of women of color were CAOs; and women were found to be more likely to serve in

senior leadership roles other than the presidency. The most likely position for people of

color to serve in was diversity officer, and 70% were African Americans. One would

think these gains in the presidency would work to their advantage, but King and Gomez

(2007) suggests otherwise:

In order for more people of color to rise to the presidency, either institutions must

promote these individuals serving in positions such as chief diversity officer or

chief student affairs officer that do not typically lead to a presidency, or campuses

must work harder to elevate people of color into the senior academic affairs

positions that are the most common pathways to the presidency. (p. 5)

In a 2004 study, Holmes interviewed six African American college presidents

(three men and three women) and found that their career paths were consistent with those

of presidents in national studies. He also found that the most common pathway to the

presidency was through such positions as CAO, provost or academic officer. African

Americans are far less likely to serve as CAO at doctorate granting schools than at any

other type of educational institution (King & Gomez, 2007).

23

African American Women

In 2006, 19% of all female presidents were women of color, 8.1% of whom were

African American (King & Gomez, 2007). African American women surpassed African

American men in both full-time faculty and administrative positions; but at the

presidential level, men outnumbered women by a large margin, with 69% of presidencies

held by African Americans filled by men and 31% by women in 2006.

According to The American Council on Education (2012), female presidents were

more likely to be women of color, compared to 22% of white women presidents. Latina

women represented more than one-third of presidents, and African American women

represented another one-third. These findings indicate that African American women

were not only in senior leadership roles but were also already college presidents at

community colleges and HBCUs (King & Gomez, 2007). Ryu (2010) posited when

institution type was examined, African American women presidents were highly

represented at community colleges, 40% compared to 8% at doctorate granting

institutions. African American women also made up 23% of the HBCUs’ presidencies.

African American women presidents provide a significant pool of candidates who

could fill the presidency vacancies. These candidates could also provide information on

what is hindering African American women from beginning the journey to the

presidency. If these findings are not examined further, African American women will

remain underrepresented. As Harris et al. (2011) stated, “In other words, African

American female college/university administrators are at risk of not being in the pipeline

that leads to becoming president” (p. 91).

24

Women in the Pipeline

When considering career path to the university presidency for African American

women, it is important to remember studies on career path are often disaggregated by

gender, but less often by ethnicity (Harries et al., 2011). The data in this section was not

disaggregated by ethnicity.

In 2012, women represented 43% of the senior administrators considered to be in

the pipeline to the presidency in higher education; women held only 26% of college

presidencies, up from 13% in 1986. Four women were presidents of Ivy League

universities in 2007 (one of which was an African American woman), and currently,

2013, women hold five of the eight presidencies of those universities. This unprecedented

number distracts from the fact that women still lag behind in achieving the position of

president at higher education institutions and hold disproportionately fewer leadership

positions than men. According to King and Gomez (2007), “Women have made

significant inroads into the senior leadership of American higher education, but parity for

women who serve as senior administrators and as full-time faculty provides a standard

for equity, then women remain underrepresented as presidents” (p. 18). For more women

to become senior leaders, change in the system is necessary.

The two most common paths to the college presidency have been through the

academic ranks, with the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) being the most common

position immediately preceding the presidency (King & Gomez, 2007; Leatherwood &

Williams, 2008). According to a CAO census, 40.1% were female and 59.9% were male

(Eckel, Cook & King, 2009). Based on these statistics, women were already at a

25

disadvantage because fewer of them were in positions that commonly lead to the college

presidency. Women were further underrepresented in deanships, a role commonly leading

to the position of CAO, further decreasing the number of women in the presidential

pipeline (Wolverton & Gonzales, 2000).

Arguing that men outnumber women not because they are more effective leaders,

but because more men are in the pipeline, Harrow (1993) stated, “...men have more

opportunities for entrance into top-level leadership roles and have established quality

power-bases for career mobility” (p. 144). Furthermore, women are appointed to their

first college presidency later in life than men (Leatherwood & Williams, 2008), implying

that women take longer to achieve leadership roles.

Challenges and Barriers for Women in Higher Education

Women’s attainment of the presidency has not come without significant

challenges. Several factors hinder women’s career advancement, including lack of pay

equity, sex-based discrimination, undesirable job assignments, and low job status

(Gorena, 1996; Newman, 2014). The Equal Pay Act of 1963, which President John F.

Kennedy declared to be the end of the “unconscionable practice of paying female

employees less wages than male employees for the same job” (History.com, 2009, para.

3) and one component of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawed discrimination based on

sex. Yet, women still experience discrimination and their salaries have still not caught up

with men’s. In 2012, as in 2002, among full-time, year-round workers, women were paid

77% (77 cents for every dollar) of what men were paid (AAUW, 2013). This gap is even

worse for African American and Latina women (National Partnership for Women and

26

Families, 2013). Compared with non-Latino white men, Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian

women were paid 66%, African American women 64%, American Indian/Alaska Native

women 60%, and Latina women 53% (National Partnership for Women and Families,

2013).

While more education is an effective tool for increasing earnings, it does not

eliminate the gender pay gap. At every level of academic achievement, women’s median

earnings remain less than men’s; and in some cases, the gender pay gap is greater at

higher levels of education.

Sexist behavior is another issue women face in academia. In a survey of 280

female college CEOs conducted in 1985, 80% of the respondents reported feeling

discriminated against regarding access to leadership positions, more specifically the

college presidency (Touchton et al., 1993). In a more recent survey of female department

chairs, some reported blatant sexist behaviors within their departments (Mullen, 2009).

For example, women in roles of leadership and women faculty were expected to perform

service-oriented tasks, freeing up men in the department to do research.

Additional inequities are also common in higher education (Sandler, 1993).

Individuals may be singled out, ignored, discounted, or overlooked on the basis of gender

or other characteristics. For example, because women are still not represented in roles of

leadership in large numbers, most people think of leaders as being male and this

perception could undermine women’s chances of moving into leadership roles (Sandler,

1993). Men in leadership or authority positions have a vested interest in maintaining the

status quo, so they exclude women from leadership positions. Because men are most

27

often in positions to hire other leaders within the organization, they tend to hire other

men, thus maintaining the gender gap. Whether this behavior is intentional or not, it is

one explanation for why men outnumber women in higher education leadership roles (A.

Smith, 2002; Trower & Chait, 2002; Valverde, 2011).

Challenges and Barriers for African American Women in Higher Education

Black women administrators were an endangered species. They were few in number, and the number was shrinking. They occupy positions that were outside the main structure of the university. They have little, if any, power. Many receive little or no support from their peers, Black or White. They were underpaid and overworked. Affirmative action policies,

once thought of as a panacea for equal opportunity, have failed them miserably.

-Myrtis Mosley

The literature indicates that great disparities exist between the experiences of

African American women and their white counterparts. White women have made

significant gains in academia, coming only second to their white male counterparts

(Holmes S., Holmes L., & Hinton-Huston, 2007). Even after the passing of Brown v.

Board of Education of 1954 African American women continue to face racial inequities

beyond gender barriers (Nichols & Tanksley, 2004). This myriad of challenges hinders

African American women’s professional growth and “their full participation in and

contribution to higher education” (Carter, Pearson, & Shavlik, 1988, p. 98). King and

Gomez (2007) reiterated, people of color as a whole are being hindered, but more

precisely African American women regarding the presidency of higher education

institutions.

African American women have made significant progress in educational

attainment and achievement. However, race and gender discrimination continues to be

28

widespread which creates barriers for these women desiring equality in leadership

attainment in higher education institutions (Robinson, 2012). Some believe race and

gender discrimination do not impede African American women’s pursuit of leadership

positions; however, completely removing racism and sexism from the discussion would

be inappropriate because these two “isms” still persist. Collins (2009) posited that for

African American women many of their experiences are centered on the double

oppression of racism and sexism, which are not independent of each other. If a Black

women experiences racism then she is most likely to sexism (hooks, 1984).

In academia, just as in society as a whole, African American women face the

double negative of being African American and female, and their lives are significantly

affected as a result (Kawewe, 1997). Sexual and racial discrimination has been said to

cause tremendous stress and hardship for African American women in academia. These

multiple forms of discrimination have been termed “multiple jeopardy” or “triple

jeopardy” (L. Benjamin, 1997; P. Benjamin, 1997; Chliwniak, 1997; Cook & Glass,

2014; King, 1990; Lindsay, 1980, 1997; Malveaux, 2013; Valverde, 2011).

According to the literature, one of the ways in which this discrimination is

manifested is when African American women are blatantly disregarded and disrespected

by their white colleagues. For instance, these women are frequently “shut down” and

“shut up” by their white peers when excluded from critical information and institutional

policy-making, and are intentionally left out of meetings that relate directly to their area

of responsibility and expertise (Farmer, 1993; Jean-Marie, 2011; Robinson, 2012;

Williams, 2012). One respondent in Moses’ (1997) study stated,

29

I have been upset by the racist and sexist treatment that I have received from both

white men and white women unable to deal with a black woman in a position of

authority. Frequently they would attempt to go over my head or around me to

keep from dealing with me. (p. 26)

Waring (2003) interviewed 12 African American female college presidents who

discussed the effect that educational background, class and the process of emerging as

leaders had on their views of themselves as leaders. The researcher found race was a key

component in the presidents’ identities and motivated them to take on leadership

positions. A common theme that emerged was that those different from the “typical”

president believed they needed to work to “prove” themselves. This belief suggests

African American women may work harder to convince others that anyone can be a

leader, not only white men and women (Cain, 2015).

Lindsay (1999) explored the climate for women leaders in higher education by

interviewing three African American women university presidents and a provost.

Participants were asked what factors if any affected them negatively due to their gender

and race. Interviewees shared that people had difficulty accepting their position of

authority, that their institution did not value women and people of color, and that they felt

expectations were higher for them than for their white counterparts. They were also asked

what issues impeded their career as dean, associate dean or department chair.

Interviewees discussed working under racist bosses who took credit for their ideas, being

belittled in front of colleagues, having bosses who tried to sabotage their career

advancement, and being betrayed by colleagues (Lindsay, 1999).

30

When asked why very few African American women were provosts and

presidents of universities, the interviewees discussed stereotypes, gender biases and

discrimination as reasons (Lindsay, 1999). Several interviewees mentioned the tendency

of false attributions about strong, outspoken, risk-taking women leaders. According to

Collins (1990), “Black women have been described as generally outspoken and self-

assertive speakers” (p. 109). An interviewee bluntly stated that strong women are seen as

“bitches.”

Racist and sexist behavior is also evidenced in institutional hiring practices, which

affect African American women’s pursuit of career advancement. For example, Myers

(2002) noted that to be considered for a senior-level position such as dean or university

president, one must have prior experience in a similar job setting. Yet, she argued

“African-American female(s)...who have not had opportunities to gain previous

experience (because of racism, sexism, or any of the other numerous inhibitors of

success) find themselves in a cycle that can seem hopelessly difficult to end” (Myers,

2002, p.8). Interviewees felt search committees discriminated by placing people of color

in the pool without any real intention of hiring them. By “opening” the search, the

administration can claim they interviewed women of color, but then hire a white male

(Lindsay, 1999).

A fairly recent study conducted by Robinson (2012) examined the perceptions of

institutional barriers experienced by African American women in predominantly white

higher education institutions. The participants of this study were 12 African American

women that held senior level titles (i.e., Dean or higher). The most commonly cited

31

barriers by the women included: the culture of the organization, unequal expectations of

African American women, lack of support from constituents and supervisors, subtle racist

acts, negative perceptions of race and gender, administrative structure being mostly white

and male, and feelings of isolation.

Many of the participants felt their voices went unheard when it came to decisions

making by the board or administrative leaders. One participant shared, “the decision is

made and you implement it, it’s just as simple as that” (Robinson, 2012, p. 135).

Participants also noted subtle racist acts as challenges faced in higher education. The

participants expressed anger as their white counterparts with lower credentials and less

experience were advancing at a faster pace into leadership positions (Robinson, 2012).

One participant stated, “Even when we [Higher Education] say diversity is valued,

sometimes it doesn’t play out when it comes to leadership, and so yeah, I would

definitely say that my race, and my gender have impacted my ability to move up”

(Robinson, 2012, p. 136).

More than half of the participants felt they had to prove their worth and work

harder than their white counterparts. Even though they possessed a doctoral degree they

still believed there was a culture barrier, which contributed to what they referred to as a

double glass ceiling. One glass ceiling was for their race and the other for their gender

(Robinson, 2012). One participant asserted, “It’s not always negating the African

American woman but I think that sometimes we’re dismissed as not even thought of, I

don’t think it’s taken serious that I have aspirations to be a President, but I did see other

people being groomed” (Robinson, 2012, p. 146).

32

Additionally, African American women in higher education continue to suffer

from the negative stereotype of their positions being secondary (Moseley, 1980;

Robinson, 2012; Williams, 2012). Furthermore, African American women typically

engage in more teaching, advise more students, and participate in more committee work

than their white faculty peers (Moses, 1997; Aguirre, 2000; Benjamin, L., 1997; Stanley,

2006; Thompson & Louque, 2005; Williams, 2012; Robinson, 2012). They also

experience the following problems:

• Tokenism (Fontaine & Greenlee, 1993; Moses, 1997; Mosley, 1980; Trower &

Chait, 2002).

• Alienation and isolation (Alfred, 2001; Jayakumar, Howard, Allen, & Han, 2009;

Myers, 2002; Trower & Chait, 2002; Williams, 2012).

• Absence of institutional support networks, mentors and sponsors (Gregory, 1995,

1999; Cain, 2015; Madsen, 2012; Moses, 1997; Myers, 2002; Thomas &

Hollenshead, 2001; Trower & Chait, 2002).

• Racism and discrimination (Cain, 2015; Farmer, 1993; Fontaine & Greenlee,

1993; Green, 1997; Gregory, 1999; Moses, 1997, 2009; Mosley, 1980; Myers,

2002; Thompson & Louque, 2005; Thomas & Hollenshead, 2001; Turner, 2002).

• Undue burdens of non-research activities (i.e. sitting on multiple committees,

counseling African American students) (Gregory, 1999; Locke, 1997; Moses,

1997; Mosley, 1980; Trower & Chait, 2002; Williams, 2012).

33

• Unfair or lack of transparent tenure requirements (Gregory, 1995, 1999, 2001;

Moses, 2009; Stout, et al., 2007; Thompson & Louque, 2005; Trower & Chait,

2002; Williams, 2012).

Summary

The research cited in this chapter suggests women in the professional workplace

have made progress during the last two decades despite challenges they have faced such

as, sex-based discrimination, lack of pay equity, undesirable job assignments, and low job

status (Gorena, 1996). However, even with this progress, women continue to be

underrepresented in leadership positions, including college presidencies. Women hold

one in four college and university presidencies, and the ratio is even smaller for African

American women presidents. As posited by King and Gomez (2007) women have made

significant inroads into the senior leadership of American higher education, but women

remain underrepresented as presidents. Further, women are at a disadvantage because

fewer of them hold positions that commonly lead to the college presidency (Wolverton &

Gonzales, 2000).

Concerning race and the presidency, African American women face not only the

challenges previously listed, but also the stigma of being both African American and

female, and their lives are significantly impacted (Kawewe, 1997). Thus, the need to

diversify the college presidency is pronounced (American Council on Education, 2008).

Further empirical focus on African American women who have succeeded in achieving

the peak leadership role of college president is needed.

34

Chapter 3

Methodology

I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.

-Audre Lorde

This narrative study investigated the HerStory of the first African- American

president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of Brown University,

Dr. Ruth Simmons. This chapter details the research methodology, including narrative

inquiry, the research procedures, and my positionality.

Qualitative research embraces experience’s contextual nature. The researcher’s

study occurs in the participants’ natural setting; describes in detail the observations;

generates data capturing the experience’s situatedness; seeks to discover rather than

prove or disprove; and is concerned with meaning, with what participants experience, and

what they create in and out of those experiences (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Kramp, 2004).

Allowing the research data to guide me, rather than placing my own restrictions

on the process, was very important. Using a qualitative approach enabled me to

accomplish this goal by analyzing the data inductively. With an inductive data analysis,

theories came from the “bottom up” rather than the “top down” (Bogdan & Bilken,

1982). A qualitative researcher’s theory is grounded in data and emerges as a piece of art

that is yet to be created, rather than as a puzzle whose image is already known. The

theory is more open at the beginning, more directed and specific at the bottom. At the

beginning of qualitative research, the researcher discovers the important questions, rather

35

than assuming to know the important questions prior to beginning the research (Bogdan

& Bilken, 1982).

Narrative Inquiry

Writers and readers of narrative inquiry research texts need to muster a certain tolerance for the unease that may accompany ambiguity and the abandonment of what

Dewey called The Quest for Certainty.

-Clandinin

I explored Dr. Simmons’ HerStory through narrative inquiry research, which

“looks backward and forward, looks inward and outward, and situates the experiences

within place” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 140). This approach examines the

completeness of an experience, situated within the experiencer’s life. This type of

research generally has been seen as a method for collecting and analyzing data (e.g.,

participants’ stories) or a method for reporting (e.g., telling the participants’ stories) or

both.

Humans are natural storytellers more than story-ers. We experience in narrative—

cataloguing and recording our experiences within the context of our lives’ settings, plots,

and timelines, creating the stories as we experience them—before we begin telling the

stories to ourselves or to others. Thus, narrative is a way of knowing, a way of both

constructing experience and giving meaning to it (Bruner, 1987; Kramp, 2004). Narrative

knowing is expressed in the narrative form we call stories (Kramp, 2004). In a story, the

participant frames his or her experience, authors it, and tells the researcher what mattered

and what meaning the experience has for him or her (Heikkinen, 2002; Kramp, 2004).

According to Bruner (1987), participants also narrate in the context of culture, audience,

36

and social norms (life told) the experience that is remembered through images, feelings,

consequences, and thoughts (life experienced) of the event (life lived).

Clandinin (2007) discussed the importance of using narrative inquiry when

working with members of marginalized, underserved populations in a research setting.

When implementing this approach, the researcher often “gives voice” to participants,

especially those whose stories often are not told accurately. The act of “giving voice”

reflects my goal of sharing the story of an African-American woman president of a four-

year PWI. Her story has been overlooked in academic research, further silencing this

underserved population. Therefore, this research’s goal is to bring greater focus on the

experiences of this African-American female university leader. As Clandinin (2007)

noted, this process of “giving voice” to underrepresented individuals is a collaborative

effort. Within this framework, Dr. Simmons served as the “authority” of the information

where I grounded “the ethics of the report” in her words, thoughts, and vision; thus, this

product is a coproduction of sorts (p. 548).

Like other narrative inquirers, I sought to understand the participant’s

experiences. Furthermore, I recognize that knowledge is socially constructed,

contextually bound, and complex and that it can take shape in many forms. Individuals as

well as their social surroundings shape knowledge. Context plays a vital role in every

situation, every individual experience, and every observation/interview. Furthermore, I

worked to understand history’s complexity and role in the life of Dr. Simmons and in her

identity as a woman and an African American.

37

Research Procedures

Participant Selection

Purposeful sampling is a non-random method whereby the researcher selects

“information-rich cases” to study in depth. An information-rich case sampling was used

in this study. Patton (2015) posited that information-rich cases are those select

individuals from whom we have the most to learn, those who can provide insight and

deep understanding regarding the topic of interest. Dr. Ruth Simmons was selected for

this study because she was the first African American president of an Ivy League

institution and the first woman president of Brown University. Therefore, HerStory

provides insight into and a deep understanding of how she became the president of an Ivy

League institution and what shaped her development.

Selecting an information-rich case requires an intentional, strategic, and creative

approach. Choosing an information-rich case also entails well thought-out criteria. The

individual should be one who is close to the issue, possesses characteristics of interest,

and is willing to share her knowledge. My selection process began with researching

current African American women presidents of four-year non-Predominately White

Institutions (PWIs). I referred to research reports published by the American Council on

Education, research conducted by King and Gigi (2008), and articles from the Chronicle

of Higher Education. In addition, I conducted an extensive Internet search of four-year

PWIs with African-American women presidents and reviewed their institutions’ Web

pages to determine if the women still held their positions.

38

After conducting my search, I discovered only two African- American women

presiding over four-year PWIs: Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson at Rensselaer Polytechnic

Institute and Dr. Ruth Simmons at Brown University. I initially contacted Dr. Simmons

in 2011, shared my research interest, and discussed how her participation would be

important to my study. I then began developing a relationship with Dr. Simmons via

email. As I advanced through my doctorate program, I remained in contact with Dr.

Simmons to keep her informed of my progress. In 2013, I contacted Dr. Jackson for the

first time and Dr. Simmons to explain my dissertation proposal and extend an invitation

to participate. Dr. Jackson declined my invitation due to prior commitments (see

Appendix G), but Dr. Simmons agreed to participate. Upon gaining IRB approval to

proceed with my research in May 2014, I emailed Dr. Simmons to inform her of the

approval and extended an official invitation.

Data Collection

This study was not anonymous, which is a strength because Simmons’ story is not

diluted by attempts to mask her identity and that of the institutions she headed. Using

multiple data sources was important to acquire dependable data (Merriam, 2009). These

multiple sources included field notes, thoughts, and interpretations of the interview

through journaling—all assisting in formulating follow-up interview questions and the

dissertation’s analysis phase. I also collected supporting information about Dr. Simmons

from doctoral dissertations, the Internet, speeches, televisions interviews (networks were

contacted to attain copies of footage and transcripts) and magazine and newspaper

39

articles, which noted her education, family experiences, and professional

accomplishments. All of this research provided a better sense of Dr. Simmons’ HerStory.

In the spring of 2014, Dr. Simmons invited me to review her personal archives at

Brown University (see Appendix H). Upon arriving at Dr. Simmons’ office on March 26,

2014, I was greeted by her secretary, Helen Pallas-Viola, and taken to a secure area

where Dr. Simmons’ personal files were located. While reviewing the files, which took a

day, I established a system of going through each drawer systematically, starting with the

top drawer and going from right to left. Organized by year and employment location, the

files ranged from personal photos of Dr. Simmons with distinguished people such as

former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, letters and post cards from various prominent

people such as renowned author Toni Morrison, magazine interviews, honorary

doctorates from several colleges and universities, and items from Dr. Simmons’

childhood.

I carefully reviewed each document, taking notes of information important and

relevant to this study. Not wanting to be intrusive, I faced the challenge of not including

everything. Even though Dr. Simmons opened her personal space to me, I remained true

to the ethic of caring and personal accountability (Collin, 2000), excluding information

beyond this study’s scope, such as Dr. Simmons’ personal correspondence with Toni

Morrison. I do not think her story is lacking as a result of these omissions.

After I returned from Brown University, Helen Pallas-Viola emailed to inform me

Dr. Simmons wanted to be interviewed by phone that week. Based on Dr. Simmons’

expertise, position, influence, and prominence (as the first African-American president of

40

an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of Brown University), this

interview is considered to as an “elite” interview (Marshall & Rossman, 2011).

Elite interviewing has many advantages and disadvantages. According to

Marshall and Rossman (2011), advantages of elite interviewing include the following:

participants can provide valuable information because of their position; they can offer

unique perspectives; and they can provide a broader vision of their role within an

organization. Disadvantages of interviewing elites include difficulty of gaining access to

them and time constraints due to their responsibilities. Typically, these individuals are

very busy. Because of time constraints, Dr. Simmons’ schedule permitted neither

multiple interviewing opportunities nor long interview sessions. Her availability was

limited due to her travel schedule and prior professional and personal commitments.

Interview questions were crafted to relate to the research questions. My

committee chair and I created a semi-structured interview protocol (see Appendix D).

According to Merriam (1988), in this type of interview the researcher attempts to use

prompts or probing questions that gives structure to the interview while allowing the

participant to use her voice in relating her leadership responsibilities and experiences.

Agreeing with Merriam, McMillan (2000) stated that this type of interview is most

common in educational research.

I sent Dr. Simmons a follow-up email confirming the interview time, contact

number, description of the interview plan, and the interview questions. As noted in

Glesne (2006), providing Dr. Simmons with this information ahead of time allowed her

to reflect on her life in more depth than she may have in the past. I kept in mind that the

41

interview questions were not a binding contract, but could be changed or altered during

the interview based on the conversation’s flow and mood.

I then conducted a 90-minute phone interview, searching for what Glesne (2006)

described as the participant’s “opinions, perceptions, and attitudes” toward specific topics

(p. 80). The phone interview, which occurred on April 15, 2014, also allowed time to

clarify any questions I had as a result of reviewing Dr. Simmons’ personal archives. This

protocol was used throughout the interview. At the beginning of the interview, Dr.

Simmons referred me to a number of other sources that could be used to answer several

of the questions pertaining to her childhood since her time was limited. I allowed Dr.

Simmons to answer the questions in the order in which she felt comfortable. While

conducting this interview, I realized that elite individuals are use to being in control and

may try to control the interview process (Marshall & Rossman, 2011). Establishing

credibility and expertise was important in order for me to gain Dr. Simmons’ respect. I

did so by referring to information that I had found in her personal archives and during my

Internet research.

I asked Dr. Simmons secondary questions as they came to me. Several questions

in the “As President” section went unanswered because Dr. Simmons had to end the

conversation (it was her travel day); however, she agreed to answer these questions

during a second interview. Although questions were used to guide the interview, sources

such as newspaper and magazine articles, Internet sites, and Dr. Simmons’ curriculum

vitae were also used. Furthermore, as Creswell (2009) noted, during this data collection,

learning the meaning of the questions posed to Dr. Simmons was important. Thus, I

42

served as not only an active listener but also a collaborator while conversing with her.

The interview questions’ purpose was to extract responses and tell a story based on Dr.

Simmons’ experiences.

Transcription

Once I conducted the interview and collected all biographical and demographic

information, I ensured the protection of both the participant and the transcriptions by

storing all recordings and transcriptions at two locations: (a) my personal computer; and

(b) my personal external hard drive, which remained locked in a personal safe when not

in use. All methods of document protection were noted in the Institutional Review Board

(IRB) guidelines.

I had intended to audio-record Dr. Simmons’ responses and to transcribe them

verbatim with her permission, but she asked not to be recorded. Upon making a second

request to record the interview, Dr. Simmons responded via email, “I'm sorry, but I do

not wish to provide an opportunity for verbatim quotes. For my own thesis, I interviewed

without recording” (see Appendix G).

According to Merriam (2009) interview data can be recorded in three ways: using

a tape recorder, taking notes during the interview, and writing down as much as one

remembers immediately following the interview. I took notes during the interview; and

immediately following the interview, I wrote down as much as I remembered. Verbatim

transcription was utilized when reviewing televisions interviews and speeches. All notes

were downloaded onto my password-protected personal computer, where all the study’s

data were stored. Notes from the interview were transcribed as close to verbatim as

43

possible. Non-standard language or dialect was noted without being altered. Verbatim

transcription consists of typing everything heard during the interview. Although the goal

of verbatim transcription is to capture “everything,” doing so is impossible (Paulus et al.,

2013).

Document and Data Analysis

Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating

documents, both printed and electronic. Like other analytical methods in qualitative

research, document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted to elicit

meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge (Corbin & Strauss, 2008;

Rapley, 2007). Documents contain text (words) and images that have been recorded

without a researcher’s intervention. Atkinson and Coffey (1997) refer to documents as

“social facts,” which are produced, shared, and used in socially organized ways (p. 47).

The analytic procedure entails finding, selecting, appraising and synthesizing data

contained in documents. Document analysis yields data—excerpts, quotations, or entire

passages—that are then organized into major themes, categories, and case examples

specifically through content analysis (Labuschagne, 2003).

I used an inductive data analysis, which Bogdan and Bilken (1982) described as a

“bottom up” process rather than one derived from a theory or from the researcher’s

experiences. This process can occur when the researcher and the participants work

together, and their interactions can construct themes or patterns from the stories

presented.

44

I reviewed all data, including written notes from the interview, personal

documents, letters, and images from Dr. Simmons’ personal archives, and Internet

documents, speeches, televisions interviews several times: first, to gain a sense of Dr.

Simmons’ overall perspective; and then to note comments, observations, and queries that

were interesting, potentially relevant, or particularly telling. This process is similar to

having a conversation with the data, or asking questions of it (Merriam, 1998). A list of

themes was created for all notes, to include a separate master list of comments comparing

notes. This master list was used as an outline reflecting the study’s recurring patterns

(Merriam, 1998). Moving from Dr. Simmons’ words to higher-order themes, I used

patterns to organize the themes and subthemes into major categories.

Respondent Validation/Member Checking

Black women’s narratives historically have been distorted, maligned,

appropriated, and rendered invisible in the interpretation and re-presentation processes

(Hull et al., 1982). To increase data dependability, three techniques are recommended:

asking the same question in multiple ways; collecting multiple nontraditional data

sources; and taking the interview data back to the participant for review, a technique

helpful in addressing language barriers (Few et al., 2003). In this study, I took the

interview data back to Dr. Simmons to solicit her feedback on emerging findings.

Maxwell (2005) posited that this approach

. . . is the single most important way of ruling out the possibility of

misinterpreting the meaning of what participants say and do and the perspective

45

they have on what is going on, as well as being an important way of identifying

your own biases and misunderstanding of what you observed. (p. 111)

Sharing tools and knowledge is essential in Black feminist theory. This approach

reinforces the need to link actual experiences with the research experience, validating

both processes as knowledge sources, albeit generated differently. Equality in the

research approach is essential to ensure all efforts are made to acknowledge and

minimize power imbalance.

As a means of member checking, Dr. Simmons was sent the transcriptions for

review. Lincoln and Guba (1985) stated that the purpose of member checking is to

provide “not only a test for factual and interpretative accuracy but also to provide

evidence of credibility” (p. 373). After reviewing the data from the initial interview, I

contacted Dr. Simmons to ask if I could send her any follow-up questions. She agreed.

Follow-up questions allowed me to develop a more comprehensive narrative of Dr.

Simmons’ experiences. In addition to member checking, sending follow-up questions

allowed Dr. Simmons to provide additional response to previous questions. By providing

additional commentary, Dr. Simmons clarified and elaborated on previous questions as

well as answered new questions.

Delimitations and Limitations

It is imperative to be open and clear about a study’s limitations i.e., to anticipate

and address potential criticisms of a particular method and/or analysis (Patton, 2002).

Delimitations narrow the study’s scope and are aspects of the study a researcher can

control, whereas limitations identify potential weaknesses and are elements the researcher

46

cannot control (Creswell, 2003). Both delimitations and limitations provide parameters

by which the researcher can create boundaries, exceptions, reservations, and

qualifications within the design (Castetter & Heisler, 1977).

This study focused solely on one African American woman who was the first

African American president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of

Brown University. I recognize including other African American women presidents,

assistant- and associate-level positions, deans, vice presidents and provosts from different

institutions would have provided a richer understanding of the experiences of African

American women in senior executive positions at PWIs (Bailey, 2010; Wolfe, 2010).

However, focusing on Dr. Ruth Simmons provided a richer understanding of how she

became president of an Ivy League institution and what shaped her development.

The findings cannot be generalized to all African American female administrators

but maybe transferable. Explaining the experiences of all African American women

presidencies in the nation's institutions of higher education is beyond this investigation’s

scope. Instead, this research captures only Dr. Simmons’ voice. HerStory and experiences

may or may not reflect the situations or opinions of other African American women

presidents and/or upper-level administrators of higher education institutions; nonetheless,

this study may give voice to their feelings, experiences, and viewpoints.

This study’s limitations are inherent in qualitative research. For instance, the

research’s quality is dependent on me, the researcher; duplicating this study may be

challenging for other researchers; and the research process was long because I had to

carefully pore over the data while fashioning the analysis.

47

Further limiting this study was that there were only two African-American

women presidents of four-year PWIs; and only one, Dr. Ruth Simmons, was available to

interview. Furthermore, written resources on Dr. Simmons were limited to non-scholarly

sources, such as articles from popular periodicals. The university archives pertaining to

Dr. Simmons were unavailable during my visit to Brown University because the residing

president had them. Dr. Simmons’ personal archives were only available to me for a day

because they were being relocated. Time constraints were yet another limitation. Because

of travel and prior professional and personal commitments, Dr. Simmons’ schedule did

not permit multiple or long interviews.

An additional limitation of this study was the lens my dissertation chair used in

guiding me throughout the research process. This question arose: What if my chair’s

perspective directly influenced my work? His race and gender became salient. More

specifically, he is a white male who has not shared many of the experiences Dr. Simmons

and I have. Consequently, my chair created a conducive environment in which open

dialogues were maintained to converse about his role in “getting out of the way of the

story” and offering advice on the study’s conduct and mechanics as opposed to

“directing” it. By doing so, a negotiation approach was adopted so as to respect my

perspective as a Black woman. My chair and I acknowledged that as a result of the

commonalities I share with my participant, Dr. Simmons and I would co-create this study

very differently than if Dr. Simmons and my chair were co-creators.

48

Trustworthiness

When considering the research’s trustworthiness, I reflected on Glesne’s (2006)

approach to pre-pilot testing, which calls for using the expertise of collaborators outside

of my research project who would review my research processes and questions for clarity

and fit. The collaborators for this study were my dissertation chair, committee members,

and several African American women who recently had obtained their doctorate and who

offered their perspectives given that their experiences and research interests were similar

to mine. In this study, credibility and confirmability were also sought through member

checking, “the process of having these individuals review statements made in the report

for accuracy and completeness” to avoid misrepresentation of the data as well as to give

Dr. Simmons the opportunity to review the interpretations (Gall, et al., 1996).

Dependability was sought by providing a detailed description of the research procedures

so that others could assess the methodology’s adequacy.

In quantitative research, rigor is assessed using established procedures for

assuring reliability and validity. Although the reliability criterion is not meaningful for

interpretive, qualitative research, the validity criterion is critical in assessing a qualitative

study’s trustworthiness (Bogdan & Bilken, 1998; Creswell, 1998). Lincoln and Guba

(2005) proposed four criteria for assessing research’s trustworthiness: (a) credibility and

confidence in the findings’ truth; (b) transferability (i.e., the findings are applicable in

other contexts); (c) dependability, (i.e., the findings are consistent and could be repeated);

and (d) confirmability, (i.e.,) the findings are shaped by the respondents and are not

researcher biased.

49

Researcher Positionality

I have come to understand that my African-ness does not diminish my American-ness and vice versa. My identity is not an either/or proposition. Rather, it is both/and. In the same

way my scholarship and my personal/cultural life are not either/or propositions. I do scholarly work that both challenges and enhances my personal/cultural life. I live a

personal/cultural life that challenges and enhances my scholarly work. I am a ‘colored girl’ who has attempted to make life in the academy satisfying and meaningful ‘enuf.’

-Ladson-Billings

A positionality statement allowed me to clarify my choices in how I approached

fieldwork, coded and analyzed data, and established a rapport with the participant.

Equally important was the ability to reflect critically on my multiple positionalities and

“think through the ways in which various identities may influence and shape the research

encounters, process and outcomes” (Hopkins, 2007, p. 396). Positionality has origins

within feminist literature and provides a clear path for identifying the lens with which I

interpret the world, where I stand in relation others (Madison, 2005). This study was

guided by my dual positionality: 1) an African American woman interested in

understanding the experiences of other African American women, and 2) an educator

interested in using African American women’s narratives to inform educational practices

in higher education institutions.

Upon reading The American Council of Education study, On the Pathway to the

Presidency, a fire burned within me when I discovered women, more specifically African

American women, were disproportionately underrepresented in the presidency of four-

year PWIs. As I discussed this topic with others, I quickly learned that not everyone saw

its significance or the injustice associated with it. As a result, I began questioning if this

topic was of real importance. Furthermore, unsure as to how I would be received as a

50

young African American woman interviewing older women, I asked myself the following

questions: How would I go about selecting my participants? How would I explain the

project? How would I use narratives to tell the participant’s story? Throughout the

research process, I continued to ask myself, “Why am I doing this work?” Or in the

words of Alice Walker, I asked, “What is the work my soul must have?” (Walker, 1984,

p. 242).

Although I now know my purpose and that my research is significant, I was

previously concerned that I might struggle with my academic commitment to my research

and to the African-American community because I wanted to become a respected

researcher as well as remain loyal to who I am as an African-American woman. As stated

by Carter (2003), “Though the two are not mutually exclusive, this effort requires

ongoing vigilance. This vigilance emerges from an ideological framework, informs that

focus of my research, directs my inquiry, and stipulates the level of my commitment to

and action toward my community” (p. 30). Therefore, I now know what impact I could

possibly have on the population I studied and the impact they had on me.

My multiple roles as an African American, a woman, a student, a member of a

low social class, and a researcher shape my scholarly work. Likewise, hooks (1981)

addressed her multiple roles:

…race and sex were two separate issues. My life experience had shown me that

the two issues were inseparable, that at the moment of my birth, two factors

determined my destiny, my having been born Black and my having been born

female. (p. 12)

51

Thus, as a Black woman researcher, I had to consider the places I was reared; my

gender, race, class, and ability; along with other interrelated factors that have played a

crucial role in developing and shaping my experiences as well as my participant’s

(Jeffries & Generett, 2003). As Villenas (1996) noted, “We are both colonized,

marginalized by the academy yet using the resources and tools for the academy to write

about our own communities and, even more intimately, our own lived experiences” (p.

3).

Being an African American woman drew me to researching an individual of the

same racial background and gender. The disparities that race creates, such as racial and

educational injustices that exist in the African American community, have driven my

interests. As a researcher, I knew I was expected to assume the singular identity of

researcher, which could have hindered me because I am both an African American and a

woman. However, I embraced my multiple identities as an African American, a woman, a

student, a member of a low social class, and a researcher. By doing so, I emphasized the

authenticity of the fictive relationship between me as the researcher and the participant of

my research (Carter, 2003).

I tried to resist taking on a singular identity by embracing my multiple identities,

allowing myself to grow as a researcher and to potentially offer society a different view

of how research can be conducted. I attempted to work through these limitations by

initially stating my beliefs. Obviously, being totally unbiased is impossible; however, I

acknowledged possible biases related to selection, sampling, procedures, measurement,

interviewer, response, and reporting.

52

Being a young (34 years younger than Dr. Simmons) African-American woman

could have had its setbacks because Dr. Simmons is an older African-American woman

who is professionally established and successful. Although we are of the same race, she

might not have taken me seriously as a professional or as a researcher. Even seasoned

African American women researchers have lost participants because of differences in

color, class, or language. Thus, as a qualitative researcher, I had to be attentive to not

only my personal appearance and body movements but also my language use throughout

the interview process. Like personal appearance and body movements, language is a

social status marker, which can connote a privileged education or socialization that can

either drive a wedge in or cement the participant-researcher relationship.

Another concern was that Dr. Simmons and I come from diverse families of

origin, linguistic traditions, geographical locations, and socioeconomic status. For

example, Dr. Simmons is from Texas whereas I am from Ohio. Furthermore, while we

are at different phases of our academic career, we are both Black and female in academia.

Although I am a Black woman studying Black women, I could not assume that I would

be granted unmitigated “insider” status. The “isms” of daily life—racism, sexism, and

classism—are potential barriers that had to be negotiated with Dr. Simmons throughout

the research process. Idiosyncrasies embedded in our identities inevitably created

moments of both intimacy and distance between Dr. Simmons and me.

As the late Maya Angelou (2007) asserted, “I’m a feminist. I’ve been a female for

a long time now. It’d be stupid not to be on my own side ” However, as a Black feminist

researcher, I also had to be conscious of the ongoing, unspoken discourse with Dr.

53

Simmons and how power shifts in a hierarchal participant-researcher relationship

(Foucault, 1979; Sampson, 1993). I also had to be willing to engage in the self-reflexive

process through sharing power. As Creswell (2007) stated, “We conduct qualitative

research when we want to empower individuals to share their stories, hear their voices,

and minimize the power relationships that often exist between a researcher and the

participants” (p. 40).

Black female researchers who reveal little information about themselves run the

risk of not being trusted by Black women participants. A relationship lacking trust could

have created an attitude of benign benevolence with the Black women participants I was

researching (Carter, 2003). To establish trust with Dr. Simmons, when I first contacted

her I informed her of my goals, including one day rising through the academic ranks, and

of my attending the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) institute.

Reflexivity

As Watt (2007) suggested in On Becoming a Qualitative Researcher: The Value

of Reflexivity, having ongoing dialogue with oneself is very important as a researcher.

This process allows researchers to “better determine what they know and how they think

they came to know it … [and] helps them take stock of the biases, feelings, and thoughts,

so they can understand how these maybe influencing the research” (p. 84). One of Watt’s

(2007) key assertions is the following:

Students are necessarily preoccupied with acquiring a myriad of research skills

(such as interview techniques and data analysis) and may be tempted to delay the use of a

reflective journal until after they become more comfortable with what might be

54

considered the basics. However, maintaining a journal during my first study, followed by

reflective writing which focused on that work, led to a more sophisticated understanding

of not only reflexivity, but all aspects of research methodology. (p. 84)

To monitor their subjectivity in data interpretation and the re-presentation of

metanarratives in the research process, qualitative researchers must develop and maintain

an “informed reflexive consciousness” (Allen, 2000, p. 7). Feminist qualitative research

requires the researcher to be reflexively attuned to the participant-researcher

relationship’s dynamics, with the goal of minimizing the hierarchy of power in this

relationship (Collins, 1998). Yet, recording experiences, reactions, and emerging

awareness during the research process need not be done in isolation (Paulus, Lester &

Dempster, 2013).

As a Black woman studying another Black woman, I had to remember that my

participant is not merely a subject of research but an active agent in defining who we are

and have been and why we do things the way we do as a diverse yet collective group. I

asked my participant to engage in a self-reflexivity process by answering my questions

during interviews; participating in follow-up interviews (member-checking exercises);

and sharing her stories through creative art, poetry, and writings.

Writing for a Broader Audience

My writing style is lyrical, rhetorical, “poetic, literary, and very personal”

(Thayer-Bacon, 2000, p. 119). This style is quite deliberate because I intended this study

to be read by a diverse audience. As Thayer-Bacon (2000) asserted about the authors she

turns to,

55

Their literary styles of writing are not a detriment, though their voices are crystal

clear and their images powerful. They are like lighthouses to me, guiding me and giving

me a point of reference, a way to mark my place. When I begin to feel like I am getting

lost in a fog of academic language, I turn to them to help me find my way and keep my

focus. (p. 119)

I aspire to be a “lighthouse” for others. Thus, I have adopted a writing style that

differs from the “conventional” for several reasons and turned to hooks to assist in

arguing why my writing style in this dissertation is not only needed but also beneficial.

According to hooks (1990),

Marginalized groups may not engage in particular ways of thinking and writing

because they learn early that such work may not be recognized or valued, or are told by

gatekeepers, usually white males, that it is better to write and think in a more

conventional way. (p. 129)

During a conversation with hooks, Cornel West shared how he could see hooks’

rationale for not wanting to be so narrowly “academicized.” When asked to elaborate on

how she handled the tension and anxiety of addressing a broad public audience and

negotiating her career within the academy, hooks (date) replied, “I think that the major

dilemma is the way professionalization within the academy limits those of us who want

to speak to broader audiences” (p. 72). She continued by identifying the problem of

professionalization in the academy, the editorial practice of all articles sounding alike

(hooks & West, 1991). My intent is not to sound like or emulate everyone else but to use

my own voice. We struggle to find our ability to use the full extent of our voices to

56

express the entirety of ourselves (Collins, 1991). I used my voice’s full range, an

approach differing from “conventional” academic writing styles; but like hooks, I

yearned to take my work where practical wisdom can be shared across such boundaries as

class and race.

I adopted this writing style because of my belief that “we can do work that can be

shared with everyone. And this work can serve to expand all our communities of

resistance so that they are not just composed of college teachers, students, or well-

educated politicos” (hooks, 2003, p. xii). Writing for a broader audience is key in sharing

and disseminating knowledge. The poly-vocality in hooks’ writings attests to the value of

employing non-jargonistic language to address adequately an audience beyond the

academy (hooks, 1992; hooks & West, 1991), making hooks’ work more accessible to the

general public (hooks, 1998). Like hooks, I hoped that by adopting this candid writing

style, even if it may not be widely accepted, my approach would be an effective way to

draw attention to the urgency of issues that are so often ignored. I also hoped to convey

the significance and urgency of such issues as racism, sexism, and classism to

marginalized groups (hooks, 1998, p. xxiii).

Summary

This chapter on the study’s methodology provided an explanation of how I came

to work with Dr. Simmons and my approach using narrative inquiry. It then outlined the

research procedures and finally my positionality and reflexivity as a researcher.

57

Chapter 4

HerStory

My journey has not been all that arduous, contrary to the way that my life is often presented. I had this wonderful grounding by my parents,

and then an extraordinary streak of luck.

-Ruth Simmons

Being educated about the participant’s history and culture is crucial for a

researcher. Displaying ignorance of HerStories and culture can quickly close doors when

tackling sensitive topics with Black women (Few, Stephens, & Rouse-Arnett, 2003).

Without a comprehensive understanding of the participant’s HerStory and culture, one

risks inaccurately interpreting the collected data, thereby contributing to the silence,

distortion, generalization, and/or marginalization of Black women’s diverse experiences

(Collins, 1991; hooks, 1989). Woven from several sources, this chapter provides a

glimpse of Dr. Ruth Simmons’ HerStory from childhood to her presidency at Brown

University. These sources range from Crace (2006), Beckham (2001), Lesinski and

Minderovic (2003), and several other interviews.

In his conclusion to Fettered Genius: The African American Bardic Poet from

Slavery to Civil Rights, Leonard (2006) referred to a 60 Minutes interview in which Dr.

Ruth Simmons, who holds a Ph.D. in French, was asked, “But why does a kid, a tenant

farmer’s kid from the wrong side of the tracks in this country decide to study French?”

She replied, “Because everything belongs to me. There is nothing, there is nothing that is

withheld from me simply because I’m poor” (p. 254). This statement illustrates Dr.

58

Simmons’ exemplary nature. HerStory is one of a woman that rose above her

circumstances even when the odds were against her.

HerStory, Their Words

I summarized the primary themes that emerged. These included childhood,

mentor and influence, journey to higher education, journey to the presidency, Princeton,

Smith College, and Brown University. The themes are related in chronological format.

Henceforth, I will switch (reframe) from using Dr. Ruth Simmons or Dr.

Simmons to using solely Simmons. The use of her title masks who Simmons was as she

sojournered as a child in Grapeland, TX to who she was to become. By using only

Simmons, HerStory can be told in its entirety.

Childhood

I was a kid from very poor surroundings. My first encounter with wealth was perhaps the moment I walked in the schoolhouse door and I looked around and I saw this wonderful

place where there were books and chairs and desks. Not only was there a wealth of material at my disposal, there was a guardian [Ida Mae Henderson, kindergarten

teacher] of all of this wealth who was cheerful and open-minded and who thought that I was wonderful, treated me as if I was really the most special person in the world. And

that’s what teachers do to children. They teach them that their mind is very special and that if they care for it they could do wonderful things with it.

-Ruth Simmons

Dr. Ruth Jean Stubblefield Simmons’ great-great-grandparents were slaves. Born

in 1945 and raised in the community of Grapeland, Texas, she was the last of 12 children

and learned quickly to negotiate forcefully but shrewdly to get her way. Her family

worked as sharecroppers in the cotton fields, “one of the hardest things that you can do—

backbreaking” (Hewitt, 2001, para. 3) Simmons said. Education was not a priority for

59

sharecroppers’ children, who did not attend school because they were expected to join

their parents in the fields during harvest time picking cotton (Crace, 2006).

During this time, blatant racism, especially in the South, resulting in violence and

civil unrest (Rhett-Rocque, 2013). Simmons has noted that the neighborhoods where she

grew up were brutally segregated and that law enforced the segregation. As a result, her

parents were very strict with their children. Simmons’ earliest memories are of being told

to step aside when a white person approached and never to answer back. As a result, she

observed,

I very quickly became socialized into believing I was worthless. Grapeland was

the kind of small, east Texan town where Blacks got murdered if they stepped out

of line. The boundary between Black and white was absolute; the possibility of

crossing it was not in my comprehension. (as cited in Crace, 2006, para. 11)

Yet during those years, she received some of her most valuable lessons.

It was a hard life that got harder when the family moved to Houston. In addition

to battling the racism of the 1950s, Simmons realized for the first time how poor she

really was. She became conscious of people making fun of her because she didn’t have

proper clothes and only had two outfits (Hewitt, 2001). In Houston, Simmons’ father

became a factory worker and later the minister of the Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist

Church, while her mother scrubbed floors in the homes of well-to-do white families.

Simmons admitted that although the family was poor, their poverty made her recognize

love and intellect. She also learned to negotiate as her parents allowed her and her

60

siblings to end their disputes with a minimum of interference (Lesinski & Minderovic,

2003).

In Houston, Simmons entered public school, and life began to look more

promising. Despite the terrifying treks to elementary school, where the word nigger was

hurled at her from passing cars, Simmons was thrilled with the value of education; and

her parents instilled in her the importance of hard work (Beckham, 2001). The other

children laughed at the way Simmons dressed and spoke. In the face of this difficult

transition, her family was her source of strength. Simmons reflected on her upbringing:

The neighborhood was shabby, there were bars on every corner, and crime and

alcoholism were part of the daily routine. And yet I was blissfully happy. People

bothered to insist I went to school, and I loved it. There was a calm and order that

was missing elsewhere in my life. But, above all, there were books. My parents

were deeply suspicious about my reading, but for me it opened a window into a

different reality, where it was possible for someone like me to be accepted. (as

cited in Crace, 2006, para. 12)

Her family was so poor they didn’t own any books. Thus, one of her most

significant childhood memories is borrowing books from the local community center. Her

goal was to read every book written. She recalls, “My sister thought that something was

wrong with me because I read all the time. She brought my odd behavior to the attention

of my mother, who assured her that I was okay” (as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 2).

Inspired and coached by teachers in the segregated schools, Simmons recalled

those mentors who led her down a philosophical road that had the sign,

61

Teachers made all the difference in the world to me. They said, ‘Ruth, you can do

wonderful things. Congratulations, you are very smart.’ I could live with having

clothes that were unattractive, because people were constantly telling me that

there was something very attractive about me and that is my mind. (as cited in

Hewitt, 2001, para. 6)

Her teachers told her how education could take her places. Simmons fondly

remembers one of those teachers, Ida May Henderson, who excited her with the learning

process (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003).

Mentor and Influence

Simmons always acknowledges positive examples in her life. Foremost among

Simmons’ influences is her mother, whose education stopped at the seventh grade. No

matter what her mother did, even scrubbing floors, she was conscientious and took pride

in her work (Crace, 2006). Simmons remembers watching her mother, who worked

cleaning houses and doing laundry, ironing “those mountains of clothes ... the long

tedious process” and her mother’s careful attention to all the details. Her mother insisted

on doing the best job she could. (as cited in My Hero Project, 2010, para. 1) Simmons

recalled, “I remember thinking what a horrible, horrible thing to have to do. And yet she

would see a crease invisible to everyone else, and she would work on it and work on it

until it disappeared” (Kingsbury, 2007, para. 3).

Simmons’ mother also taught her children by sharing stories of those who had

faced bigotry with courage. Leading by example, her mother faced life’s daily challenges.

Simmons told Lauren Picker of Parade Magazine, “The conditioning I got when I was a

62

child was to not do anything unless you tried to do it at the best possible level” (pp. 4-5).

Simmons’ mother also counseled her to fit into the role white society had cast for Blacks,

something she chose not to do. Instead, she was determined to excel despite Jim Crow

segregation policies (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003). Simmons emulates people who

others may not consider role models. She noted,

I admired my mother immensely. Yet she would never be someone who would be

described as having done anything great or powerful.... But that is the most

powerful force in my life - my mother, who happened to do day work. (as cited in

Clayton, 2000, para. 13)

Simmons’ mother was a strong woman even on the evening of her death. Sensing

Simmons’ uneasiness that last night, her mother suggested, “You can go home if you

want to; you don’t have to stay” (as cited in Beckham, 2001, p.5). However, Simmons,

then 15 years old, stayed, remembering her mother’s words: “My only concern is to live

long enough to see that all of my children are okay” (as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 6).

Acknowledging that the lessons learned from her mother are the cornerstone of her faith

in humanity.

Journey to Higher Education

Simmons continued to dream despite her environment’s harsh realities, and

getting an education was one of her top priorities (Rhett-Rocque, 2013). In an interview

with PBS, Simmons recalled a moment when she asked her mother if she could go to

college one day. Her mother gave her a strange look because at the time going to college

seemed impossible due to lack of funding. In the years before the Civil Rights marches,

63

when segregation ruled the South, it was seemingly impossible for a Black child to attend

college (Crace, 2006). No one Simmons knew had gone to college, and certainly no one

in her family was college educated. Simmons, however, decided to break the mold. At

Phyllis Wheatley High School in Houston, Simmons gained the attention of drama

teacher Vernell Lillie, who recognized her talent and drive and stepped into the void left

by her mother’s death when Simmons was 15 years old (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003).

The drama teacher believed Simmons would have a better chance to be cast in leading

roles at historically black Dillard University in New Orleans. Lillie convinced Simmons

she was college material, and Simmons’ teachers had written to Dillard asking for

Simmons to be awarded a scholarship to study drama. Simmons not only graduated at the

top of her high school class, but also won the scholarship.

When she had nothing to wear to college, a teacher took her into her closet and

gave her clothes. In 1963, with a suitcase of donated clothes in one hand and a

scholarship in the other, Simmons arrived at Dillard University. Simmons’ brothers and

sisters, proud that a family member could gain a college education, sent her money when

they could (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003). Simmons noted, “I had no way of repaying

them—the only thing I could do was to show them that their efforts were well-placed”

(Picker, 1996, p. 4).

Simmons eventually changed her major from drama to French and was active on

the college newspaper staff, using the newspaper to cry out against injustices (Lesinski &

Minderovic, 2003). Recalling her years at Dillard, Simmons shared with John Pope of the

Times-Picayune,

64

I came to believe that I had something to offer. Because Dillard was a small

college with very close nurturing of students, I worked with dynamic teachers

who instilled in me the belief that I had a mind that was interesting and strong and

agile and capable of doing a lot of different things. (1996, p. B1)

As a junior on scholarship at Dillard, Simmons was handpicked by its president to

go on a year-long exchange program that gave her the opportunity to study at Wellesley,

a prestigious all-women’s college in the Northeast (Clarke, 1995 & Crace, 2006). The

experience further strengthened Simmons’ belief in her abilities when she compared

herself favorably to the students from privileged backgrounds. This was the first time

Simmons had studied alongside whites, apart from an unforgettable summer spent

learning Spanish in Mexico; and she was surprised to find that class issues were just as

problematic as race (Crace, 2006). She recalled, “The college was very solicitous, and a

family was assigned to look after me, but it was strange to be living on a corridor

alongside women who had so much more money than me. I used to have to work as a

maid—I could be grand and call it a cleaner, but that would be a lie—to survive. The

cultural gap between the other students and me was huge” (as cited in Crace, 2006, para.

15).

At Wellesley College, Simmons came to admire President Margaret Clapp, who

helped change her notions of gender. Simmons recalled, “That [change] was defining for

me, the notion that women didn’t have to play restricted roles that you didn’t have to hold

back at all. The faculty demanded that you work up to your potential” (Kingsbury, 2007).

Simmons learned that women could pursue careers in many fields and that they could

65

assume leadership positions. She also became convinced of the value of all-women

schools (Crace, 2006). Simmons told Caroline V. Clarke of the Black Enterprise,

What happened for me in the classroom at Wellesley probably shaped my life. It

was 1966, and while watching the Civil Rights Movement unfold on TV, I came

to recognize that my mind was just the same as the students in the classroom with

me. I could do everything that these very wealthy, very well prepared white

women could do. I had sort of suspected that there wasn’t very much to all this

hype that blacks were inferior to whites. But now I knew the truth, and an electric

bolt went through me. (p. 126)

Like most Black students in the early 1960s, Simmons became an active member

of the Civil Rights Movement; but her battle over organized religion brought her up

against Dillard’s authorities (Crace, 2006). She recalled,

There was a rule that every student had to attend chapel. It felt wrong to insist that

atheists or Jews should be made to go to something that contradicted their beliefs,

so I refused to go on principle. The college threatened not to allow me to graduate

unless I backed down, but I stood firm. In the end, it was them that had to give

way, as I had become the first ever student to win a Fulbright scholarship to

Harvard and they realized they wouldn’t be able to boast about it if I wasn’t first

awarded my degree. (Crace, 2006, para. 17)

After graduating summa cum laude from Dillard in 1967, Simmons then spent a

year studying French at a university in Lyons, France, on a Fulbright fellowship (Crace,

2006). While in France, Simmons saw an alternative to the prejudices in the United States

66

but observed that cultural differences in Europe were also met with hatred and bigotry.

However, Simmons believed that people would eventually overcome the ignorance and

mistrust that becomes bigotry (Kingsbury, 2007).

Simmons then went to Harvard to earn her master’s and doctoral degrees in

Romance languages. Language fascinated her, and her favorite book became Song of

Solomon written by the language specialist and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

Simmons was swept away by its evocation. The beauty and brilliance of Morrison’s

language inspired Simmons, who studied five languages and speaks French fluently

(Beckham, 2001).

Journey to the Presidency

Leadership did not come easily for Simmons. Her mother, Simmons recalled,

“believed herself to be subservient to the interests of men,” a traditional belief of gender

roles that Simmons found challenging to completely eliminate (Kingsbury, 2007, para.

4). She noted, “I expected that in my relationships with men, I should pretend not to be

smart. I never wanted to be valedictorian because I thought it was very important for a

boy to be valedictorian” (as cited in Kingsbury, 2007, para. 5). Outspoken and political in

her public life, she was remarkably quiescent in her personal life. Married in 1968 at age

22, she had two children: a son, Khari, and a daughter, Maya. Simmons’ has stated that

family was her priority and that everything she did was solely in their interest (Crace,

2006). Simmons knew her children needed her when they were young but there would be

a time when they would grow up. Consequently, she kept working hard to gain more

skills and become a better person (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003). Using the flexibility of

67

her career in higher education and her drive to excel, she frequently awakened at four in

the morning to write or study (Crace, 2006).

Simmons spent 15 years crossing America, from Washington to Los Angeles

through Boston and New Orleans, following her husband as he started a profession as a

lawyer and diplomat before ending up in the film industry. “It’s just the way it was back

then,” she shrugged, “Besides, I knew I was more marketable than him, so it was no big

deal for me to find a job” (as cited in Crace, 2006, para. 17). Thus, Simmons’ career

decisions depended on her husband.

When her husband’s work took the couple to New Orleans, Simmons was hired as

an assistant French professor at the University of New Orleans, where a fire was ignited

in her to help others (Crace, 2006). The only Black faculty member in the French

Department, Simmons recognized that not many Black students were enrolled in French

classes. Simmons believed she could change this and make an impact on the lives of

students of color in her position, “As an administrator, I would encounter more students

of color,” Simmons explained (as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 3).

Within two years, Simmons became the assistant dean of the College of Liberal

Arts. “I didn’t really decide to go into administration,” she explained. “I’m always trying

to tell people what to do,” she says with a laugh, “and I’m an inveterate problem solver”

(as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 3). Simmons thought the French offered at the University

of New Orleans was esoteric, not taught very well, and unorganized (Beckham, 2001).

Additional administrative positions followed. After New Orleans, Simmons spent

six years on the West Coast. In the late 1970s, the Simmons family moved to Southern

68

California, where Simmons coordinated a National Endowment for the Humanities

liberal studies project and taught in the Pan-African Studies program at California State

University at Northridge (Beckham, 2001). Simmons’ academic specialty was the

literature of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean, an interest ignited by Mercer Cook,

author of The Militant Black Writer in Africa and America and a visiting professor at

Harvard during Simmons’ years as a graduate student there. Simmons later became the

graduate school’s assistant dean at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles

(Beckham, 2001).

Princeton

In 1983, the Simmons separated, divorcing six years later’ and Simmons found

herself managing a job, household, and two teenage children. At first, she felt anxious;

but she realized she was free to make her own career decisions (Crace, 2006). After

accepting a directorship of Princeton University’s Butler College, which had been

admitting women since 1970, Simmons and her children moved to New Jersey. While at

Princeton, Simmons revitalized the anemic Afro-American studies program, firing all the

adjunct professors and bringing in full-time faculty. Reflecting on that time in her career,

Simmons said,

My impression of myself is that I was something of a pain in the neck. I was

incredibly serious, and was always pushing the university to do more to make the

faculties more diverse and their more admissions policies more open. (as cited in

Crace, 2006, para. 19)

Becoming acting director became the springboard for Simmons’ academic career.

69

Simmons recalled her experience in the position:

I had to lay the groundwork so that the departments would welcome Black

scholars. Their concept of African American studies was that it was something

strange. They had to be shown that it was a method of legitimate inquiry, that

Black scholars did the same things as other professors. (as cited in Beckham,

2001, p. 4)

Being given the chance to understand and overcome their stereotypes, the

Princeton faculty supported the initiative. Simmons’ approach was twofold. First, she

convened an interdisciplinary search committee; and second, she sought scholars who

would attract each other and offer each other intellectual sustenance (Beckham, 2001).

She declared, “No scholar should be isolated; each should benefit from the other’s work

so that there is increased status ... and a critical mass of influence is taking place”

(Beckham, 2001, p. 4). For example, a scholar like Arnold Rampersad, author of a

Langston Hughes’ biography, could benefit from his contact with novelist Toni Morrison,

while philosopher and religious studies authority Cornel West could connect with like-

minded specialists (Beckham, 2001). Morrison observed, “When we met, I immediately

knew her milieu because I’d come from the very same place. We did have a connection

from the beginning.” The scholars Simmons recruited connected not only with each

other, but also with Simmons.

In 1986, Simmons was promoted to assistant dean of faculty at Princeton and

served as associate dean of faculty from 1987 to 1990, all the while learning to master the

university administration’s rigors under the leadership of Neil L. Rudenstine and Harold

70

T. Shapiro, who later went on to presidencies of other Ivy League institutions. In 1990,

Simmons left Princeton for two years to be provost at Spelman College, where she

revamped the college’s faculty review process (Beckham, 2001). When Simmons

returned to Princeton, she encountered doubts expressed by students while counseling

them. She explains, “They all had this sense that they didn’t belong, that the university

had made a mistake in admitting them. It wasn’t just a minority issue. Somehow, they

were stuck with this powerful ideal that we must be perfect” (as cited in Beckham, 2001,

p. 3). Simmons told students that education takes place at different rates and that growth

and achievement vary.

In 1993, Simmons became vice provost and executive secretary of the Priorities

Committee, the university’s budget committee. She was also involved in academic and

facilities planning and policy development. After several racist incidents on campus in

1993, the university administration asked Simmons to research Princeton’s racism

problem. She was at first offended by the request since it was more appropriate research

for a sociologist, but Simmons knew the problem had to be addressed. With assurances

that her recommendations would be acted on, Simmons spent several months

interviewing staff and students (Beckham, 2001). During this time, issues related to

minority students were discussed on college campuses across America. Yet Princeton,

historically the Ivy League school that attracted Southern aristocracy, was not progressive

when it came to multiculturalism debates (Beckham, 2001). Simmons’ proclivity for

identifying and solving problems radically changed Princeton’s image.

71

Simmons wrote The Simmons Report, which became a national model for

improving race relations on college campuses (Clayton, 2000), including setting the bar

for improving tolerance. Two recommendations in that report are noteworthy. Simmons

maintained, “First, we make these assumptions that interracial accord is easy and that if

you only try, everybody will be able to negotiate the terrain. But, in fact, we need expert

guidance” (as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 4). She recommended Princeton use an

ombudsman’s office to help solve and manage difficulties by using practices such as

conflict resolution (Beckham, 2001). Simmons also maintained that a forum was required

for different groups to communicate with one another. “Positions become hardened,” she

contended, “so we need a neutral place where different conversations can occur” (as cited

in Beckham, 2001, p. 5). This recommendation led to the affirmative action office’s

refocusing and the university’s writing a diversity statement. As a result of such

initiatives, Simmons became a person of interest for search committees (Lesinski &

Minderovic, 2003).

Simmons consistently found people eager to advise her on how to succeed in

academia. They instructed her to work her way up through the faculty ranks and not to

get pigeonholed by focusing on affirmative action, African-American studies, or

women’s issues. However, Simmons, opted not to heed that advice. “My career,” she

says proudly, “has always been about things I care about” (Kantrowitz, 2001, para. 1).

This focus allowed Simmons to move quickly up the administrative ladder at several

institutions after only a few years in the classroom.

72

Smith College

In 1995, the young African-American girl who excelled at the segregated Houston

public school became president of Smith College, an elite all-women’s college in

Northampton, Massachusetts. The same teachers who had encouraged Simmons watched

as she was being sworn in. Simmons made history by becoming the first African

American in the United States to head a college or university in the national rankings’

upper tier. She became Smith’s ninth president and made a number of significant changes

that solidified her standing as not only one of the country’s top college presidents, but

also one of the most admired (Beckham, 2001).

Simmons is known for her intellect, empathy, and ability to achieve her goals,

characteristics for which her peers admire her (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003). According

to Princeton University’s president, Harold T. Shapiro, quoted in the Journal of Blacks in

Higher Education (JBHE), “Ruth Simmons represents quality, Ruth Simmons represents

integrity, and Ruth Simmons has a vision of how higher education can serve the society

that supports it” (1995, p. 55).

Simmons was the subject of a number of presidency searches but took few of

them seriously, believing she was mainly included to place a minority on the list of

candidates. In fact, she created a computerized refusal letter to respond to such offers

(Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003). In 1995, when the Smith College search committee

approached Simmons, it had to prove its sincerity, and Simmons had to prove that she

was the right person to lead the all-women’s college into the twenty-first century.

Simmons’ accepting a college presidency encompassed being a scholarly role model,

73

developing faculty, budgeting, developing curriculum, and handling student affairs and

enrollment. With the views of Smith College’s search committee and Simmons

coinciding, she became the committee’s unanimous choice from a list of 350 candidates

(Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003).

At that time, Simmons wished the inauguration of an African-American woman

would not be a major media event in the country (Lesinski & Minderovic, 2003); but she

was also realistic about her appointment to Smith College. It “shattered stereotypes in

powerful ways” (Hawkins, 2007, para. 1). Becoming president-elect was monumental;

Simmons received calls and letters of congratulations from across the country. University

of Michigan president, James J. Duderstadt, confidently predicted to JBHE,

Smith College enjoys a long and proud history. I believe the best is yet to come

for Smith under Ruth Simmons’s presidency. She already has established herself

nationally as a perceptive scholar, an adroit administrator, and a courageous

leader who welcomes challenges. (1995, p. 55)

Neil L. Rudenstine, president of Harvard University, described Simmons in a

JBHE article (1995) as “a person of exceptional insight and humanity” (p. 56).

Rudenstine added,

She understands institutions, and how to bring people together. She cares

passionately about keeping the doors of higher education open to students from all

backgrounds and from across the entire economic spectrum. She knows talent

when she sees it, and she has an uncommon capacity for bringing out the best in

everyone. She’s still a bit of a miracle as far as I’m concerned. (p. 56)

74

During her years at Smith, Simmons continued her pioneering approach to work.

She established the first nation’s first engineering program in a women’s college and

started Meridians, a journal that focuses on minority women. Nobel Prize winning author

Toni Morrison described Simmons in a 1994 New York Times interview:

She has an unusual combination of real politics and integrity, and this very keen

sense of morals which does not interfere with her generosity and her wide

spiritedness. She’s extremely creative in terms of solving other people’s

problems. And she’s a lot of fun. (A34)

Simmons also introduced Praxis, a program that provided a college-funded

internship for every Smith student. During her tenure at Smith, she also raised the

school’s endowment from $400 million to $900 million and reduced faculty teaching

loads from five to four courses (Beckham, 2001).

Simmons’ bond with students at Smith was very strong (Clayton, 2000). For

example, Ohenewaa Larbi, a senior biochemistry major from Ghana, said of Simmons,

“She’s influenced me in a lot of ways. As a Black woman, it’s very encouraging for me

to see someone who’s intelligent and humble at the same time” (cited in Clayton, 2000,

para. 8). Ms. Larbi’s experience, like that of many other Smith students, parallels the

personal story of Simmons, who said,

My teachers didn’t dismiss me as just another poor kid from a family that could

never support their aspirations. Instead of shoving me to the side, they said, ‘You

could do some things with your mind.’ It’s impossible to describe what it is these

teachers gave me. The only thing I can say is that I understood, early on, that what

75

education had given me was richer than anything anybody could ever give me in

the form of material goods. So I have my wealth. It’s in my mind. (as cited in

Clayton, 2000, para. 24)

Simmons’ need to contribute and to be an asset has been a driving force in her

career. She once told a youth in a NASA-sponsored Internet chat room, “My goal in life

is to be helpful to other people. I hope you will also have that goal” (as cited in Beckham,

2001, p. 3). To increase minority applications at Smith, Simmons visited inner-city

schools from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, encouraging girls to consider

higher education (Beckham, 2001). Simmons recalled of one of those visits: “I went into

a school last year, a public school in Houston, Texas in the inner city. I walked in the

door ... the halls were strewn with trash.” I walked into the principal’s office ... chaos.”

She paused and continued, “It is preposterous to ask those students to perform at the same

level as a student at Exeter” (as cited in Hewitt, 2001, para. 9). Simmons’ passion for

students is driven by a belief that students should have someone to look up to, just as she

did.

Simmons worked to open higher education, particularly elite private institutions,

to disadvantaged minorities. She explained,

I don’t want to see higher education segmented so that community colleges are

for people like me - and universities go on to educate the elite, the ‘haves.’ It’s

important for these universities to continue to be places that are validating their

democratic ideals. They have to be seen that way. Because to the extent that they

76

are no longer such places, I think society will feel very differently about

supporting them. (as cited in Clayton, 2000, para. 2)

For instance, in 1997 Simmons created with a New York City high school a

partnership known as the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem. Visits

were arranged not only for the Harlem High School students to the Smith campus, but

also for Smith students to the school. At that time, minority students represented about

17% of Smith’s student body, and Smith had a retention rate above 80% (Beckham,

2001).

Quick to address difficult topics, whether academic or societal, Simmons tackled

issues other campus leaders either didn’t address or simply ignored. For instance, she

addressed whether colleges should eliminate SAT exams since minority students’ scores

lag behind white students’. Simmons said, “I am not religious about them. They have

their value when combined with additional information, but I favor looking at the

secondary school record as a better reflection of success in college” (as cited in Beckham,

2001, p. 5).

Simmons was especially concerned with how society accepted racial cruelty and

legally enforced segregation: “It has been a long struggle toward equal access, and the

struggle is still in front of us. But we must focus on showing our youth how to survive”

(as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 5). Similarly, Simmons has noted that African-American

males’ hugely disproportionate incarceration rates have a negative effect on Black

families and need to be addressed. “The prison situation is the main issue,” she declared,

77

“and I don’t know why it hasn’t caught the imagination of the African-American

community” (as cited in Beckham, 2001, p. 5).

Throughout Simmons’ HerStory, she accomplished much. She also came to

understand her story can and will inspire the next generation:

There are young people out there in the worst possible schools who have it in

their mind that they’re just going to break out and go to the best possible schools

you can imagine. The only way for that to happen is for people to actually see

you. (as cited in Kantrowitz, 2001, para. 2)

Brown University

Being "first" is common for Dr. Ruth Simmons. She made history as the first

African-American woman to head a top-ranked American college or university as the

president of Smith College. And on July 1, 2001, despite a mentor telling Simmons she

would go far, but the presidency of an Ivy League college was out of the question

(Beckham, 2001), Simmons became the first woman and first African American to head

one of the eight Ivy League institutions, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Former Brown Chancellor Stephen Robert was clear as to why Simmons was

selected to preside over Brown University:

Ruth Simmons is a gifted academic leader with impressive accomplishments in

areas of particular importance to Brown: institutional diversity, collaborative

research and learning initiatives, faculty support and minority faculty recruitment,

undergraduate scholarships, and a deep appreciation for fundamental personal

78

values. We have selected an extraordinary leader, a person of character, of

integrity, and of depth. (cited in Black Enterprise, 2001, p. 26)

Even though Simmons was selected to take the helm of Brown University, she felt

much was at stake by accepting the presidency, making it a difficult decision. Simmons

discussed that difficulty during an interview:

When Brown first approached me [in 2000], my instinct was to turn them down.

But a friend told me I had a duty to accept, as no black woman had ever been

president of an Ivy League college and I owed it to the African-American people

to be a role model. To show what could be achieved. (as cited in Crace, 2006,

para. 3)

Her decision went beyond merely filling a position. Simmons revealed,

It wasn't just a question of doing the job. It was about being seen to do it well. If I

had done it badly—or just averagely, for that matter—everyone would have

thought, ‘Well, we've done our bit by appointing a black woman but it didn't quite

work out,’ and gone back to choosing a white man next time. This could have set

back the cause of black people claiming the top jobs by a couple of decades. (as

cited in Crace, 2006, para. 4)

Simmons possessed a deep conviction and unwavering energy, which were

needed as Brown University’s president. She embraced Brown University's innovative

spirit and the open curriculum approach to education that placed “the burden of choice,

freedom, intellectual curiosity and independent motivation” on the student. She shared

with Mark Clayton of The Christian Science Monitor (2000), “What makes me want to

79

do this job is that I believe passionately in what colleges and universities do, because I've

benefited from it” (para. 5). Simmons believed in the power of education and how

education could transform lives. She believed that the university was responsible for

challenging students intellectually and preparing them to become informed, conscientious

citizens (Rodman, 2012). “My obligation,” Simmons revealed, “is to try to preserve the

opportunity for future generations of students like me, who came from the margins of

society and longed to believe in the democratic ideals that were being expressed to me as

a child” (Clayton, 2000, para. 6). She focused on ensuring a renewed emphasis on Brown

University’s core egalitarian values and not just increasing its endowment (Clayton,

2000).

Simmons’ goal was simple: “We are bringing people from all areas of society to

ensure ... that people who graduate from Brown have a sense of the plurality of interests

and backgrounds in this country” (Clayton, 2000, para. 21). Also personally recruiting

students to Brown University, she acknowledged, “It’s probably the most important thing

I can do on a national basis” (Kingsbury, 2007, para. 8).

Simmons effortless connection with students at Brown University possibly

stemmed from her past teachers who supported and helped her succeed. Simmons

explained, “I wanted to make a difference by working with students. I wanted to make a

difference because when I was a child without means, people did that for me” (Black

Issues in Higher Education, 1995, p. 9). This desire made her an avid defender of

universities’ right to make admissions decisions that draw students from all sectors of

society. She maintained, “If that means admitting a student from West Virginia who has a

80

1400 SAT score over yet another student from New York with a 1420 to bolster diversity,

then so be it” (Clayton, 2000, para. 18). Simmons was, however, concerned that the

public didn’t understand her decision’s significance:

We don’t have an exclusive system. Anybody can hit a homerun. That

fundamental ideal is what makes this complex system actually work. When we

stop having that, then we’ve lost a lot in this country. I want to be sure Brown is

attentive to the kid whose family has no means, and who's somewhere hidden in

the plains of the country, but aspiring to do something with their life. And if they

want to go to Brown, and they have the ability, I want them to be able to go. (as

cited in Clayton, 2000, para. 11)

Simmons instituted a blind admissions policy so all qualified applicants were

accepted and could attend Brown University regardless of their ability to pay. Simmons

asserted,

We would never take a student who didn’t have the right qualifications. But it

would be wrong to suggest universities don’t take a second look at the children of

the rich and famous. We would be missing a trick if we didn’t. It’s not about

giving the rich and famous preferential treatment, so much as not wanting the

university to pass up the opportunity to educate and influence someone who is

likely to play a major role in public life at some time in the future. (as cited in

Crace, 2006, para. 9)

81

Simmons believes Ivy League and other top higher education institutions are in

danger if they remain primary focused on increasing endowments and prestige instead of

the fundamental mission of producing an educated citizenry (Clayton, 2000). Simmons

The danger comes if institutions play the rankings game, build endowments, and

adapt curriculum to meet the demands of those giving money—instead of hewing

to their core purpose. If that happens, she suggests, higher education will go the

way of professions that have found themselves the object of public mistrust and

disinterest in recent years. I think the American public believes that a small

number of institutions make it possible for the students they accept to become

wealthy and successful. They fear that unless their children can get into those

institutions, they are being locked out of the American dream. That's why the

stakes are so high. (as cited in Clayton, 2000, para. 21)

During her presidency at Brown University, Simmons received an 87 percent

approval rating from the student body according to the student newspaper. Student’s

admiration for Simmons only grew as she engaged in a media debate with conservative

Bill O’Reilly, who called her a “pinhead” for permitting an on-campus party sponsored

by a gay-rights group called Queer Alliance.

To enhance Brown’s academic programs, Simmons developed the Boldly Brown:

The Campaign for Academic Enrichment, which successfully raised $1.4 billion, the

largest in Brown's history. This campaign was designed to expand and strengthen the

faculty; increase financial support and resources for undergraduate, graduate, and medical

students; improve facilities; renew a broad commitment to shared governance; and ensure

82

that diversity informs every dimension of the university. This campaign led to a major

investment of new resources in Brown’s educational mission (Rodman, 2012).

In 2005, Dr. Simmons motivated philanthropist and former Brown student Sidney

E. Frank to give $120 million, the largest aggregate monetary contribution in Brown’s

history. This gift was primarily allocated to Brown students’ scholarship assistance to

Brown's science programs. In 2007, philanthropist Warren Alpert made a contribution to

strengthen the programs of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School in the

amount of $100 million. The campaign continued until its designated endpoint in 2010,

raising a total of $1.61 billion.

Simmons made internationalization a priority for Brown, equipping its students

for the global economy by preparing Brown students for lives and careers with an

international dimension; making Brown a top competitor for the best students and faculty

available for transnational scholarly collaboration; enhancing Brown’s position in

addressing global problems; providing transnational professional development

opportunities for young leaders educated at Brown; and initiating dialog with peer

institutions globally.

To implement this international approach, Simmons appointed David W.

Kennedy, the former Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, as

vice president for international affairs (Brown, 2015). In addition to supporting the

Watson Institute for International Studies’ leadership, the new university officer led a

multidisciplinary advanced research project in the field of global law, governance, and

social thought to strengthen the University’s international work in the social sciences.

83

An additional element of Simmons’ international efforts, Brown and Banco

Santander of Spain inaugurated an annual series of International Advanced Research

Institutes to convene a rising generation of scholars from emerging and developing

countries at Brown in a signing ceremony on November 13, 2008. As noted by Simmons,

To be at the forefront of research today means being in conversation with global

peers. The Brown Institutes provide exciting opportunities to encounter new

ideas, build collegial relationships and enrich faculty development for young

scholars and teachers from around the world. (Transnational initiatives at Brown,

para. 4)

In March 2010, Simmons traveled to India as part of a major program called the

Year of India, dedicated to improving understanding Indian history, politics, education,

and culture among Brown students and faculty. Simmons has also been invited to

participate global leaders’ meetings organized by the Clinton Global Initiative and the

World Economic Forum at Davos.

Brown University, founded in 1764 by John Nicholas Brown, accumulated a

fortune through the slave trade. At that time. Rhode Island traffickers controlled between

60 and 90 percent of American’s African slave trade throughout the 18th century (Brown

University, 2003). As the wealth that the founding Brown family contributed to the

university was based in part on the slave trade, Simmons established the University

Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in 2003 to examine this complex history and

make recommendations for how the university might approach relevant issues. On

February 16, 2007, the Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery

84

and Justice was published in conjunction with an event celebrating the 200-year

anniversary of passing the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the involvement of Cambridge

University alumni William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and William Pitt the Younger.

Simmons delivered a lecture at St. John's College, Cambridge entitled Hidden in Plain

Sight: Slavery and Justice in Rhode Island.

In September 2011, Simmons resigned from her position as Brown President but

remained at Brown as a professor of comparative literature and Africana studies. During

her tenure at Brown, Simmons increased diversity, raised money, strengthened the role of

the faculty and preserved the university's mission as a refuge for academic inquiry.

Simmons shared in an interview with Barbara Kantrowitzi of Newsweek,

I stayed in education because I believed in it. I thought it was the most important

thing a person could do. University life is critical in our civilization. We either go

on to improvements or we don’t, and the story of what we do will be told in

universities.

At Brown, Simmons became a vital component of that story.

Summary

This chapter wove together existing literature and retold Dr. Simmons’ HerStory

beginning with her childhood, moving to those who mentored and influenced her.

HerStory then traced her journey into higher education at Dillard University and

eventually to the presidency beginning with Princeton as she climbed the academic ranks

and then moved into the presidency at Smith College and Brown University.

85

Chapter 5

HerStory: In Her Own Words

No one can understand the path I’ve actually been on because you would have to have lived that life . . . .

-Ruth Simmons

Dr. Ruth Simmons’ narrative is a journey from Grapeland, Texas, to Brown

University and one of her sojourn across racial, class, gender, geographical, educational,

and academic borders. This narrative is very complex, and any attempt to understand it

holistically highlights its breadth and depth. While clarifying that capturing every

moment and detail is impossible. Having not lived Simmons’ life, we do not know what

she has experienced; but with her permission I share HerStory.

The previous chapter provided the framework of Simmons' HerStory as told by

others, including Beckham (2001), Lesinski and Minderovic (2003), and Crace (2006).

This chapter captures Simmons’ voice by providing the framework of HerStory as told by

her, structured from an, in-depth data analysis of her personal archives (speeches, articles

and reports) and from a personal interview.

Simmons’ experiences, strengths and attributes, and challenges and barriers as the

first African American woman college president included not only her presidency but

also her life leading up to becoming president. Therefore, presenting HerStory from

childhood to her presidency at Brown was important.

HerStory, Her Words

Taking great care to avoid my own perspective, I summarized the primary themes

that emerged from an, in-depth data analysis of Simmons’ personal archives (speeches,

86

articles and reports) and from a personal interview. The themes included childhood,

society, education, mentor and influence, journey to higher education, journey to the

presidency, and her presidencies were pieced together in chronological format.

I included lengthy quotations to preserve Simmons’ voice. I did not want to use

paraphrasing because it is not always a reliable method of relaying information. Instead, I

began each major section with introductory observations and remarks before presenting

her words in italics. In addition, I interspersed additional comments within each section

to help transition between the stories she tells.

Childhood

I remember aspiring to do something with my life. I think that even then, as a high school student and even much younger, I came to desire to achieve something spectacular. I

didn’t know what that would be, but I thought that I wanted to make a difference somewhere.

-Ruth Simmons

Simmons’ parents played a major role in her life, teaching her many values,

including decency and concern for others.

Not well, educated people, they finished eighth grade, probably equivalent about

two grades today, my parents were very, very wise. They taught us that we were human

beings who had a lot of potential. My parents would stand up to people who derogated

them, and seeing that as a child had an enduring effect. They set high expectations for my

brothers and sisters and me, and they were very exacting in terms of our measuring up to

those expectations because they were in fact fighting for the right to live with dignity.

Their values were clear: Work hard, be honest, be kind to people, be respectful,

be a decent human being. Do good work; don’t ever get too big for your breeches;

87

always be an authentic person; don’t worry too much about being famous and rich

because that doesn’t amount to too much. In short, just try to be a good person.

The conditioning I got when I was a child was to not do anything unless you tried

to do it at the best possible level. I was always independent-minded. I was always

encouraged to work hard, to study very hard, and to develop my own personal skills and

my own humanity.

The hierarchy of Simmons’ family was very clear. It internalized and perpetuated

ideologies of male dominance. In her family, the girls waited on the boys, serving their

meals, cleaning up after them, only eating after the boys filled their places. If there were

not enough chairs for everyone, the girls stood.

I had spent most of my life in a family dominated by men. I have seven brothers

and a very strong father, and the women in my family—I have four sisters—were

expected to be deferential toward men. Men made decisions; men's lives were more

important. Men deserved to be treated with great respect no matter what they had done in

life. In fact, in my own family men ate first, because we were too many for everyone to be

at the table at the same time. Men were served; women served themselves. When

important matters had to be discussed, women were asked to leave the room.

The girls were not expected to do what the boys in the family were expected to do.

The girls in my family were brought up to believe that men came first and that we were

secondary in every respect. That was just the way that it was. It didn’t mean that we

accepted it. We were always in the minority, and we felt that acutely. It was a male-

88

dominated family in every sense of the word. Women didn’t have their own voice in my

family.

I had to fight for a place for myself. Boys had wide latitude and more importance

than girls. The role of girls was to support whatever the boys wanted to do. I had to fight

for the legitimacy of what I wanted to do and became outspoken. I went my own way, and

I didn’t think my wishes should be subservient to boys.

Society

Simmons grew up in a pernicious system that could have prevented her from

succeeding.

In the world I grew up in, the boundary between Blacks and whites was

absolute; the possibility of crossing it was not within the realm of my comprehension. I

grew up understanding that the restrictions on where I could go, what I could do, and

whom I could be were exactingly clear and enforced frequently through violent

deterrence. I was aware that there were certain ways of behaving that were essential to

surviving in that environment. Don’t ever talk back to a white person, okay? If you’re on

the sidewalk and you meet a white person, step off the sidewalk and let them pass. So, we

had a long list of things that we dared not do for fear of what might happen to us because

violence against Blacks in those days was commonplace, so we were in this vise. We lived

in this bazaar universe as if it were, quasi-normal to be considered less than human, less

than intelligent, less than fully free.

So as a girl like most who grow up in a small limited environment, I knew and

cared little for the broader world. Growing up in a segregated environment, I learned

89

from my parents how dangerous it was in fact to aspire to be anything but what was

mandated for me at that time. I could not speak freely, could not assert myself, could not

dare to seek equality, could not educate myself except within the confines of what was

expected for a Black person of my circumstances to divert from the expected constituted

actions for which the time of my coming of age people were severely punished and

sometimes killed. So my parents protected me by insisting that we remain firmly within

the safety of our limitations.

Pre-Civil Rights years, I was not hampered by expectations of achievement. A

Black child was not expected, certainly, to aspire to college; for the most part, colleges

were not open to African Americans until the 1960s. Naturally, it would have been

unseemly, even unthinkable, for me to aspire to this goal. Everything about the society

that I grew up in told me I better not aspire to do anything. In that system, it was

understood that I should never aspire to go to college, that I should never aspire to the

middle class that I should never aspire to go to the theater.

But Jim Crow didn’t understand the power of Simmons’ mind.

I do wonder sometimes how it was that I had the imagination to think I could do

something different from what was being dictated to me by the political messages of the

time. I think somehow this sense of myself came from my mother, who instilled in us very

strong values about who we were. And this was quite essential at the time I grew up

because in that environment, in the Jim Crow South, everybody told you that you were

worth nothing. Everybody told you that you would never be anything. Everybody told you

that you couldn’t go here, you couldn’t go there. She would just constantly talk to us:

90

‘Never think of yourself as being better than anybody else. Always think for yourself.

Don’t follow the crowd.’ So we grew up with a sense of being independent in our

thinking.

There was no expectation of Simmons to succeed. In her household, Simmons

was expected to do nothing more than get married.

Girls were expected to marry, have children, and maybe to have a small job.

When I was growing up, my expectation was to do well enough in high school so that I

could get a job in an office. My goal was not to become a maid or factory work but

instead to get a job that was in an office. That was my modest goal growing up.

My parents had an eighth-grade education. They grew up in the rural area of

Texas and didn’t know people who went to college; and so growing up, there was no

expectation that I would go to college at all. I could not have had any aspiration other

than to follow in the footsteps of my parents. This way of life was certain to be my fate. I

asked my mother whether or not I could go to college and her answer was . . ., and I think

she was kind of mystified by the question because she didn’t see any way financially that

we would be able to manage that. And so she said, ‘Well, if a way could be found.’ But

she clearly in the tone of her voice suggested that she didn’t really believe that it was

going to be possible, but she was kind of letting me down gentle. So, there was no

expectation whatsoever, and I didn’t expect it myself, honestly.

Very few people expected you to achieve. And to know that and to see it in their

eyes and to hear it in what they said had to be one of the hardest things I think. The fact

that I did well in school was nice, but it didn’t have any particular meaning. I’m sure that

91

my family feared the disappointment I would suffer when I eventually realized that my

efforts would not really take me anywhere.

Education

In Grapeland at W.R. Banks Elementary School, Simmons developed her love

for learning and experienced what she refers to as “an intellectual awakening.” Education

allowed Simmons to feel included, not excluded, and to feel valued, not dispensable.

I understood that although I didn’t have shoes or toys, my mind, and what I

poured into it, equalized all that. Fortunately, I first came to know a broader world

because of the wonderful and safe existence of books. The rigid segregation practices

enforced at the time were not clever enough to outlaw libraries; and so while not well

stocked, our community and school libraries afforded us the opportunity to know that

there were circumstances vastly different from the one we actually lived. This

information, initially just the hint of it, lit a fire in me to know more and more of that

intriguing world so different from my own. That curiosity kept me going to school and

back to the library in an effort to understand better the peculiar circumstances of my

environment. The existence of alternative cultures and societies that were miraculously

not built on the ideal of racial supremacy gave me hope as a child.

That move to Houston changed my life because the city required us to go to

school every day and that sort of saved things for me. The pivotal difference between

what they [my parents] had faced and what I experienced was that I was able to attend

school in every season and to advance from grade to grade in the routine manner taken

for granted today. This simple difference would set me on a path not foretold by the life

92

into which and for which I was ostensibly born. School was a refuge from hopelessness,

the turmoil of the day, the civil rights struggle, the inclination to dismiss Blacks and their

capabilities, which was so much a part of growing up in the South when I was young.

Here was a place where you were not a nigger. You were a human being who had

capabilities and who had potential. I had never been made to feel that before.

As a child I had no reason to believe I could learn. I should have been willing to

settle for little or nothing. But education empowered me to feel that with intelligence

there were many things that could be done. Retreating into my studies, a variety of

subject areas but especially fiction and history, provided a way for me to establish a

more assured place and identity for myself both within my community and within society

at large. This new identity had been created for me neither by the constraints of my birth

nor by those of segregation though still an evolving one it had been freely elected. It

facilitated a new understanding of the absurdity of the limitations imposed upon me by

others. I drew increasing satisfaction from exerting some control in a context in which I

objectively had so little. Education gave me freedom, the freedom to do things that I

couldn't dream of doing before. Imagine at seventeen to discover that I could assert my

intelligence, I could strive, I could imagine doing things that I couldn't have imagined

before. I could travel, I could seek the truth; this is a very powerful thing for me.

93

Mentor and Influence

It’s amazing how a lone person helping you, reaching out to you, can be so instrumental.

-Ruth Simmons

Simmons attributes much of her success to her mentors. The list of people who

significantly influenced her include humble people she encountered earlier (parents and

teachers).

This is one of my concerns because I think the whole issue of mentoring has

gotten a little bit out of whack. With mentors being defined as people of great

accomplishment who bring people along behind them. I’ve never seen mentoring that

way at all, and I don’t experience it that way even now. I‘ve had an enormous variety of

mentors, starting with my first-grade teacher who essentially introduced me to learning

in an exciting way that made me want to be a very good student. So, there’s a whole

string of teachers in my life who have made an enormous difference. Their relationship

with me went beyond the 8-3 school day. They looked for opportunities for me. They went

beyond the curriculum, beyond the guidelines they had as teachers. Mentoring involved a

wide range of things introducing me to things that young Blacks didn’t have access to at

that time: taking me to the theatre and restaurants.

I grew up with all these people trying to show me a middle-class life. I was not in

the middle class. We were very poor, and all of these ideas of how to move around the

world and how to associate with different people was completely foreign to me because of

my socioeconomic status and background coming from a rural area, being a part of a

farming family, and not having any type of sophistication about those things. All these

94

people came along; and how I dressed, talked, and my understanding of the world—all

that was introduced to me by others. But at the same time, the personal qualities that

defined me tended to be mentored by very humble, unsophisticated folk; and I would say

my mother was the dominant influence in my life In terms of teaching me how to be a

human being. So, my mother and my father, who had 8th grade educations, these are my

first mentors and the way that I move about the world today. If anyone asked me today

what’s the reason why I do what I do or how I do it, it’s certainly because of my mother

mostly and of course my father.

A lot of people I encountered in my early life, humble people who had tremendous

values, incredible work ethic and just observing them taught me the values I have today.

If it had not been for the support and encouragement of mentors, I would not have had

the courage to set on this path. Along the way, many others appeared to guide and

encourage me because I was open to receiving help and I was willing to act on the advice

I was given. These mentors and advisors helped me succeed, and I know I was lucky to

have them; so today, whenever I have a chance, I pay homage to these wonderful people

who pointed the way for me when I was young. And no matter how strong you are, no

matter how talented you are, you have never ever made it on your own, so whenever you

get a chance, acknowledge the people who helped you; and in that regard, I just want to

say how.

Mother. Simmons’ mother was the greatest influence in her life. She inspired the

way Simmons thought about everything she did from her work to the way she treated

others and expected to be treated by others.

95

My mother was busy cooking, cleaning, and doing so many things. Because she

had so many children, my mother had to stay at home. But she also needed to earn

money. So, for a part of my childhood after we got to Houston, she took in ironing. That

was the term that was used: she took in ironing. And that means that lower-income white

families brought mounds of clothes to be ironed—this was in lieu of going to a laundry—

and she would basically iron clothes. This way she could be at home and watch over us

and at the same time earn a little bit of money to help the household. On occasion, she

would do what was called, day’s work, which meant she didn’t have a full-time job with

one family. She would do a day here, a day there for different families, cleaning houses.

I was given the privilege to observe a remarkable woman take great pride in her

work and carry herself with extraordinary dignity and with extraordinary kindness. I

watched her iron those clothes meticulously. As a child very much thinking about how

stupid this work was and how boring it was and how undignified it was and how horrible

it was, I saw that this woman—in addition to having to have responsibility for all these

children and in addition to being poor and in addition to having to care for all of us—she

had to do this backbreaking work. Yet what she did was to carry it off with great dignity

and with absolutely no complaint. I think she helped me understand how important it was

to do whatever one does very well.

I learned from my mother and from the way she worked how to care about my

work, how to care about everything I do. I will always remember the ironing she used to

do. There was no permanent press then, I will remind you, or steam iron. She would build

mountains of ironing, and I would help her sprinkle every garment, roll each one up in a

96

ball to keep it moist. Then she would begin the long and tedious ironing process. I

remember her careful labor on the piles of cotton shirts, ironing the collar, ironing the

horizontal piece across the back of the shirt, ironing the top and all around the button,

one by one. I tell this story about watching my mother doing this abject work and the care

that she took when she did it, these clothes that were brought to her by people who had

no respect for her. And yet she did what she needed to do. She gave careful attention to

what she did and insisted on doing it well.

[I was] first schooled by my mother having a sense that what was visited upon us

should not be visited upon anybody else. And there's something about growing up in an

environment where the essence of who you are matters not at all, the fact that you could

be gifted or could be intelligent or could be skilled or could be articulate, none of that

mattered. One was always reduced under Jim Crow in the South to nothing, unworthy,

inferior, with no hope for the future; and the unfairness of that struck me when I was very

young. That and the combination with the fact that I was one of a very large family, I was

the youngest, and so sharing was absolutely essential in my family; and perhaps that's

why my mother insisted on thinking about others, whether we were respecting others. I

remember very much that thought that I could never consider myself better than any

other human being. This is just a mantra that we all grew up with; and of course as a

child, I didn't pay much attention to it because this is after all something your mother is

telling you, and I kind of half listened. But as I grew older, the power of that idea began

to rest with me. And I understood what she was trying to say to us.

97

I always say that my mother was by far the greatest influence on my life and the

person to whom I am most indebted. She was a wise and inspiring teacher, though she

didn’t have an education. She taught me to value no person on the basis of their material

worth. She handed down stories of courage in the face of bigotry. She suggested a way

for me to survive in the midst of the acute intolerance in our society. She showed me how

she could, with grace, magnanimity, and aplomb, carry out the most difficult and most

unfulfilling work. Now, that had a terrific influence over me because it made me feel that

I had no right as a human being to be less worthy than she. And so my task was to care as

much about my work—which after all was far more interesting and far better

remunerated—to care as much about my work as my mother cared about hers. To have a

sense of responsibility, to see dignity in what I did, irrespective of what I was being paid.

My mother was raised to believe that you should afford people respect, but not

only that. She also understood that you are entitled as a human being to have theirs. She

knew, by her bearing, how to insist on that, to carry herself in such a way that she was

respected, always. So when people ask me how I learned to be a leader, I tell them about

this extraordinary person who taught me not only how to think about myself, not only

how to interact with people irrespective of their path in life, but also about how to

recognize the value of human beings and how to treat people, including myself, with

fundamental respect. None of us can be a leader of much merit if we do not know how to

do that.

98

Teachers. Simmons believed that it is the people who nurture us; the opportunity

to develop our mind, the freedom of thought and high expectations that affect us. This

mixture of circumstances came together in Simmons’ life because of the teachers who

nurtured her after she lost her mother to kidney disease immediately before her junior

year in high school.

After my mother died and probably largely because of my mother’s death my

teachers and administrators at Wheatley High School in Houston took a particular

interest in me because a child has lost a parent. Usually a teacher is going to pay special

attention and hover a bit more, at least in those days. Because of that I grew very close to

several of my teachers, and they took me under their wing and decided that they were

going to move me along and talk about college and help me get to college. That really

was the thing that put me on the path to college; my 11th and 12th grade teachers and

administrators at my high school really focused on doing that. I was one of the top- two

students.

People who seek to know why the expectation of failure did not overtake me when

I was growing up should know it was teachers who saw in me at an early age the

potential to think, to act, and to lead. I could not have seen that myself but, no matter,

they did. From the time I set foot in their classrooms, these teachers set a standard for me

to follow.

One of the first teachers that greatly influenced Simmons was Ida Mae

Henderson, her first- year teacher at Grapeland’s W. R. Banks School.

99

She [Ida Mae Henderson] loved her students. In fact, she called us all babies. In

fact, she’d say, ‘Ruth baby, why don’t you think of doing this?’ She loved us; she held us

close; she inspired us to do more than we ever thought we could do. Here’s a place

where you were pushed to do the things that society forbade. So, this wonderful woman

with this cheerful voice was encouraging while society was putting you down all the time.

What made a difference for me with Ida Mae was, never in her instructions to us,

never in her vision for us did she say, ‘You can do this, but you can’t do that.’ If I’m here

today, it’s because in my heart of hearts, when I was small I grew up believing that I

could do anything. I didn’t know if society would permit me to do it, but I knew I could do

it. So, that’s why Ida Mae Henderson is so important to me.

Then Vernell Lillie, Simmons’ drama teacher in high school, taught her to believe

in possibilities and encouraged her to ignore the limitations others tried to impose on her.

I was especially close to Mrs. Lillie in high school because she was a very special

teacher for me then. In many ways, I think that Lillie is responsible for my broader

cultural interests and for the expansion of my personality in a way far beyond the sort of

limitations of fifth ward, Houston, Texas. She got us involved in debate tournaments, and

we traveled and learned to speak publicly.

Vernell Lillie helped Simmons get a scholarship to Dillard University, Lillie’s

alma mater. Teachers gave Simmons money and went into their own closets and took

clothing out to give to Simmons so that she could go to college.

When I was in high school, I had never considered the possibility of going to

college; I mean after all, how could I? But a teacher [Vernell Lillie] encouraged me and

100

pointed me in the direction of a small college in New Orleans, Dillard University.

Dedicated teachers helped me with my application. They prepared me for an experience

that was completely unknown to anybody I knew and listen to this, you know, when I got

ready and I got in, I got a scholarship. When I got ready to leave for college I had no

clothes and a teacher from my high school took me to her house went into her closet and

took clothes off hangers in her closet and packed my bag. That's the kind of help this

country ought to be about all the time not the kind of vitriolic messages that we get today

from across the political spectrum telling us that people are not deserving, telling us that

we have to be… we can be selfish and hold things to ourselves and not share it with the

rest of the world, telling us that reaching out to others doesn't matter. What kind of

message is that?

Journey to Higher Education

When I went to Harvard or to Wellesley and people behaved as if they thought I didn’t belong or that I didn’t know very much or that I couldn’t do the work, I had a secret I had learned over 19 or 20 years. And that is that I was very smart. I don’t really know how I retained that secret, except there were a lot of people who worked with me as a

young person and who said ‘Ruth, you are very smart and you should realize it; you can do anything you want to do.’

-Ruth Simmons

Many of Simmons’ older siblings had to work to help financially support the

family. Attending school was not an option so few of Simmons’ older siblings had the

opportunity to graduate high school or attend college.

Most of my older siblings didn’t graduate from high school; they dropped out; it’s

not fair to say they dropped out. In those days, it was expected that you would go to work.

My sisters did it as well; my older sisters stopped out of school to go to work. It was only

101

the last five youngest who stayed in school and finished 12th grade. My older sisters later

went back and got GEDs, but it was really the five youngest who had an opportunity to

go to high school and finish.

I had a Brother who was four years older than me who had been very successful

in basketball. Got an offer to play basketball at Pairie View College, and so he was in

college when I was finishing up high school. So, I knew that sports provided an avenue

for going to college because of my brother Clarence who was at Pairie View playing

basketball and doing it very successfully. I clearly recall going to see him play a

basketball game and being on the Pairie View campus, which was probably my first foray

on to a college campus and getting sort of a sense of what it must be like to be on a

college campus . . . . I wasn’t an athlete, and so I didn’t see myself having that type of

opportunity at all. Just because my brother had gone to college it would not have been

thought that I should go because he went because boys had greater freedom and they had

greater expectations.

Dillard University. When Simmons’ arrived at Dillard University, she

discovered it was not an easy transition. She contemplated dropping out her first year and

did not intend on returning.

My first year of college, my grief for my mother became more acute. I would say

that year was one of the hardest in my life. Thank goodness I was poor enough that I

couldn’t go home. If I had had the means to go home, I would have left and probably

never gone back. What kept me going was the fact that all these people had helped me

and I had these scholarships. How did I say, ‘Thanks very much, but I’m going to

102

squander that’? How could I say that? So what actually kept me going was the fact that I

had all of this help.

Simmons persevered. She decided to stay in college and pursue a liberal

education because she believed it was the solution for all that she had seen growing up.

At Dillard University, she found her rebellion, she discovered the ability to assert her

views and to be alone and stand alone, in those views.

I had the instinct, somehow, to believe that the humanities and the arts could

teach me something. I knew something was wrong with the world I lived in, knew this

segregated society was not normal. I knew something was wrong when I would walk

down the street minding my own business and gangs of white boys would pass by me in

their car and call me ‘nigger’ and assault my dignity. I knew that there was a way to deal

with this barbarism and to understand it; and I thought that somehow the humanities

could give me a way to do that.

I studied theater and art and music and mostly literature, where I settled because

I needed to know the ways in which mankind had over the centuries responded to social

change. I knew that I needed to understand this because I recognized that if I couldn’t

come to understand it I was going to go crazy or kill somebody. I knew I needed

something that would strengthen me in the uncivil world.

During Simmons’ undergraduate years, she was a troublemaker.

I was defensive. As a young person I was pretty angry: that was my response to

ignorance and to bigotry. I became a rebel in college, and in my early career I was still a

protester. I protested every injustice on campus. When I was an undergraduate at Dillard

103

University, a Black college in New Orleans, I was a fiery activist. I took up the cause of

all kinds of disenfranchised groups.

One of the causes Simmons took up was protesting required chapel, a Protestant

service at Dillard, which was a Methodist school. This almost ended her pursuit of a

higher education. Even though her father was a Baptist minister, and this was a culture

she understood, she believed that the requirement was unjust.

I was enraged by this because I thought it was so unfair; and I asked myself,

‘What about Jewish people, what about Catholics? How could you require them to go to

chapel?’ So, I decided that I had to protest and not go to chapel. Of course, there were

no Jewish students there at all, and there were no Catholic students there at all. But it

just seemed to me that institutionally that had to be the wrong approach. The university

was very severe about that because you couldn’t graduate if you didn’t go to chapel. And

so, the university was very upset with me.

This was embarrassing to a college of Christian affiliation, and the fact that I was

a top student made it even more so. So they concluded that this quixotic quest was meant

to embarrass the college. In my youthful ardor, the ideal of fairness meant more than a

degree. More than approbation. More than the censure of my family. And they wrote to

my family that I was going to be kicked out of school. In my senior year, when I was

preparing to graduate from college, this resurfaced again; and they said I couldn’t

graduate because I had failed to complete the required number of chapels.

104

Notoriety saved Simmons. She received a Danforth Fellowship and a Fulbright

Award. It was unusual for students from Dillard to win these awards, and Dillard couldn’t

announce those awards without letting her graduating.

I did graduate. In April of my graduation year, I had been awarded a Fulbright

and Danforth Fellowship for graduate study. I did not succeed in overturning this

requirement, but I took with me from this experience a lesson that strengthened my voice

and my efforts to acquire a moral discernment that could be my companion through the

Civil Rights era.

Simmons had no experiences with other races until she was 17 years old because

Houston was deeply segregated. She also attended a segregated college, so getting

outside the United States where races mingled more freely was an opportunity for her to

debunk some of the myths she had grown up with regarding the United States and the

characteristics of different races.

In pursuit of this understanding, I started taking languages in college and then

decided that I could understand my own country better if I went to other countries and

studied their cultures. So I did. The reason is actually quite utilitarian. If I mastered

languages, I would have an opportunity to travel around the world. I could be an

interpreter, I could do all kinds of different things, and I thought that as a young person I

would not get those opportunities otherwise. And I craved learning about the world more

than anything else.

I went off to Mexico at the age of 18 to see if my instinct was correct. The

experience of living with a Mexican family as part of a summer’s studies program was in

105

some ways the beginning of my education frankly because it was the first moment when

my education truly opened out rather than closed in. Segregated for 17 years, I had

known the places that I could go and the places that were taboo, and I had remained

imprisoned within those strict boundaries; but there in Mexico I found that there were no

such boundaries for me. Here was a place where the outlook, traditions, politics and

culture differed greatly from anything I have ever known. I was a different kind of

“other” there. Curious and at times apprehensive about the northern neighbor Mexicans

that I encountered [who] projected their own bias about white Americans (‘Yankees’ they

call them) in a curious way after feeling victimized by the discrimination I felt in the

United States, I felt an unsettling and unwelcome solidarity with white U.S. students who

were targeted by Mexicans as crude, insensitive Yankees. It was perhaps the first time in

my life that I understood I had a vastly more complex identity as a world citizen.

Now, cite my experience in Mexico because it provided a pivotal in my life not

because of the efficaciousness of the course I took that summer but because I understood

for the first time that international and cross-cultural study is an inevitable component of

an education that prepares one for a modern life. And what it inevitably does is allow you

to look back on your own culture from an entirely different perspective. And as a young

African American, I needed desperately to do that because the country was in turmoil.

And I needed to understand this country of mine because I needed to have hope in it.

Standing outside the country in Mexico and looking at the cultural dynamics of a

different society probably saved me because I could have been a very angry person.

106

Other cultures looked unflawed to me when I was a young person. And this

culture looked like one of the worst in the world. I needed to stand in another culture to

see the challenges that other people faced, to understand how the challenges of my own

country came about. Because when you're mired in this country, it's easy to think that the

flaws are not part of other cultures. But they are.

I went to France, a country that I just loved. I loved being there. I nevertheless

had to take the rose-colored lenses off and see that France had its own problems. The

mistreatment of Arabs in the era when I was there, some experiences that I had

personally taught me that I was not going to be able to conclude as I thought I might that

the United States was merely an aberration, that racism in the United States was

somehow exceptional, that somehow if I could reach other shores, I would find a different

reality. That was clearly not the case; I learned that. So, I began to see my own country.

It would be many years before I would be witness to these cultures, but the possibility of a

different norm stuck in my mind; but eventually foreign study persuaded me that

international exchange could be an essential element in not only improving my own

outlook but also transforming American society. Oh, I know that the mission of most

exchange programs was to spread greater understanding of our country throughout the

world, but I was interested in this larger purpose: expanding our understanding of

human differences.

Traveling to Mexico and living in France, I could see the incivilities of other

countries and started to understand what was happening in my own. Part of what I saw

was that they were just as messed up as we were! Cultural prejudices in Europe and

107

elsewhere created the same outrageous displays of hatred and incivility as in the United

States! Then I started to get it. It's not so much that Texans or people from the United

States are uniquely flawed; it's that we are all flawed. And we all face the same great

challenge to try to learn how to overcome the uncivilized instincts that come so naturally

to us, instincts to distrust, belittle, and attack anyone who is different.

When Simmons heard Dillard’s president wanted to see her, she instantly thought

she was to be punished for something she had done. Instead of going to his office,

Simmons went to the president’s house where the president informed her that Dillard had

an exchange program with Wellesley College, and he wanted her to be the next

participant. Simmons accepted the offer and spent her junior year at Wellesley, where she

experienced culture shock.

I was coming from a segregated South. I had never had substantial interactions

with whites. I had never been in an environment where I felt that people were watching

me all the time to see whether I was stupid or smart or crazy. And here I am in this kind

of environment where people are having high tea every afternoon.

Wellesley College transformed Simmons. She found confidence in her intellectual

ability taking anchor. There was a woman president, and for the first time the idea a

woman could occupy a position of power “crystallized” for Simmons. Margret Clapp was

a phenomenon for her. At that moment she thought, “Maybe those barriers are coming

down.” And they did.

When I got to Wellesley, I saw, my God, there was a woman running the place.

And I was so startled by the role that women played at the college and in the classroom.

108

One didn't have to hold back. And as you know, African Americans of my generation

were all reared to hold back because not holding back could cost one's job, one's life,

and do great harm to one's family. I actually didn't have to hold back in terms of the

force of my intellect, the force of my opinions, and the force of my aspirations. I felt

affirmed in a way I had never known, free from invidious comparisons with male students

and inspired by the self-assurance of so many other bright women. I took ownership of

my abilities that year. It was an epiphany. I can’t tell you what a thrilling experience it

was to be in a class where I was really listened to and encouraged. My year at a women’s

college transformed me. It helped me identify and develop my intellectual capacity.

In her French class at Wellesley, Simmons had trouble keeping up because it was

taught completely in French. She told the professor she was going to drop the class.

His response was no, I should just stick with it, and after a while I would start to

understand. I thought that was the silliest thing I had ever heard. Simmons did not have

the money to return home, so she went to class every day. One day I realized that I was

understanding French, and I was speaking French; and I think that was the pivotal

intellectual experience for me in my undergraduate years because the moment that I

understood I was speaking French, I thought nothing again would be foreign to me.

Once I understood that I could go from zero (that is, not understanding anything)

to realizing there was a solution and then solving the problem, I was never afraid again,

ever. From that moment on, I’ve never been anywhere intellectually where I’ve been

afraid, and that is why I always regard every obstacle that I encounter as having a

109

solution. After that, I really thought I could do anything. Of course it wasn’t true, but I

thought it. And that was the most important thing.

Harvard. Simmons graduated from Dillard and matriculated at Harvard where

she soon felt inadequate while studying French literature. After being assigned an

explication du texte Simmons was stunned when a professor considered her paper

excellent but shunned her because she was Black, or a woman, or both.

The surprise in his eyes when he handed the paper back to me revealed that I

would have to prove over and over again that I deserved my place at Harvard.

There was a professor, of sixteenth-century French literature, who wouldn’t talk

to me. I think it wasn’t suitable to him that I should be African American and be the best

student in the class. I came to understand that I not only deserved to be here, I needed to

be here.

Simmons’ specialty was the Negritude movement, which in the early decades of

this century attempted to integrate African influences into French culture.

Here I was, a young person searching for identity, studying French. I'm studying

La Chanson de Roland and Renaissance literature and ideas that, one might say were far

afield of what I was experiencing as a human being. At the same time, the student body

was in turmoil at Harvard. There are sit-ins, and there is Black-power rhetoric

everywhere. And then I discover something really quite remarkable when a visiting

professor, Mercer Cook, comes to teach the Negritude movement. I discovered that the

same kind of thing we were discussing as students at Harvard had been undertaken by

people like [the Martinique poet and playwright] Aimé Césaire and [the Senegalese poet

110

and statesman Léopold] Senghor, and that there had been a movement in France to

challenge some of the thinking of traditional French society in the same way that we were

challenging the traditional thinking here. And at the heart of all of this was this notion

that my heritage—that is, African heritage—was a heritage to be taken seriously, to be

understood, to be studied. Probably because of that I finished my PhD. Without that I

probably would have dropped out of graduate school.

Journey to the Presidency

If I’m here today, it’s because in my heart of hearts, I grew up believing that I could do anything. I didn’t know if society would permit me to do it, but I knew I could do it.

-Ruth Simmons

Simmons had several mentors she believes were imperative to her journey to the

presidency. She believes that learning can take place in the most unexpected ways and

from the most unexpected sources.

A number of people told me as I was coming along that I would surely one day

become a president of a college or university. My own view of my leadership is that it’s

been characterized by what people see as my values more than anything else. I have

certain abilities to do things, it’s true; and I have a certain vision, it’s true; but most

people will talk about my character more than anything else, and that was provided to me

by fundamentally uneducated people who worked hard and who believed in respecting

other people and who insisted that when we were growing up that we be the kind of

people who treasure those values.

One incident that I have recalled a number of times for people is that many

minorities and women came up in environments where they were patronized. They were

111

told they were doing well when they weren’t doing well and they were given a pat on the

head and people thought they were doing the best they can. Unlike many men in the

environment who are constantly challenged, constantly reviewed and told the score,

women and minorities often weren’t because people were afraid of the consequences of

doing that. I would say to my students, ‘If you are around somebody who is constantly

praising you, get as far away from them as you can because you never need that in a

mentor. What you need in a mentor is someone who tells you what you actually need to

do to improve. It’s very hard to find a mentor who does that because most mentors don’t

want to give you bad news. So they move people along from experience to experience

never telling them what they actually need to know. I tried to be a mentor to people by

telling them what they need to know.

I have had a variety of mentors coming up early in life; and then when I went into

the profession, I also had some dominate mentors along the way. I tried never to rely

solely on identity as the basis for working with people or being mentored by people. Not

surprisingly the people who supported me mostly were white men, Jewish people, people

who were very different from me. Because I never thought it was very useful to use your

ethnicity or your race or your gender as the basis for determining who has something

important to say to you, I always looked for people who had something admirable about

them, something to teach. The people who supported me, it’s a very diverse group of

people across decades who has been helpful to me and inspiring to me.

Some of my greatest moments of growth have come at the hands of people who

were not noble laureates or captains of industry, not from my world of faith, not from my

112

field of endeavor. I would say my greatest mentor in my life was a Jewish man [Aaron

Lemonic] from Philadelphia who we have had absolutely nothing ostensibly in common

with him, and yet he was my greatest champion and my greatest teacher. Throughout my

personal journey, I have been able to count on the care and concern of Jewish men and

women who were infused with the principles that they learned in their faith. Rabbi Eddie

Feld and his wife Merle Feld who gave me their friendship and show me the deep faith

and upright religious identity carry an obligation to be generous in one’s faith as well as

in one’s deed. Some of my greatest teachers were unexpected: a Korean monk with whom

I shared a cup of tea in Seoul Korea; a teacher in inner-city Houston; and my greatest

teacher overall, my mother who was a maid.

Radcliffe College. Although Simmons had scholarships in graduate school, she

had to work to meet expenses. During her junior year at Dillard, she cleaned houses, and

in graduate school she had a part-time job interviewing prospective Radcliffe students.

When I was a Ph.D. student at Harvard, I was asked to drop out of my Ph.D.

program and become a full-time staff member at Radcliffe. I was, first of all, the only

Black student in my Ph.D. program, and they wanted me to drop the program in order to

become an administrator. So I just thought that was very odd, and I always remember

that. I was skeptical of letting others create that path for me. In the end, however,

because there were so few African-American faculty at the time, I realized that I would

see very few minorities in my classes. And that the only way I could influence what was

happening with regard to minorities was to take a central position. And that’s why I

113

ultimately did it. It never occurred to me that this would be a path that I would stay on or

that I would accomplish anything at a significant level.

After graduation, Simmons realized she was in the “most esoteric” of fields,

French literature, teaching both language and literature. She also discovered she was one

of the few African Americans in her profession.

I started as a faculty member, tenure-track faculty member, in the French

department at the University of New Orleans; that was my path. When I started my first

job in 1973, the year that I completed my PhD. there were no Blacks to speak of at the

time at the University of New Orleans. One of the inevitable things that happened was I

was the only other Black person in sciences/medicine. When you are the only one and if

you have any ability at all, then people focus on you. It all started because of my unique

status as a faculty member. It’s probably also true that in those days I was an anomaly. I

was an African America, woman, and faculty member with a degree from Harvard and

there were not many of me out there at the time and that garnered attention early on, the

fact that I had a fairly trouble-free education in which I clearly excelled.

I had very bad advice as a young faculty member. It's even fair to say I had no

advice. People talk a lot about mentoring today, but I had no mentoring. I was the only

African-American faculty member in all of the humanities at the University of New

Orleans when I started. People didn't quite know what to do with me. And so they mostly

kept their distance. I had no one to say, ‘Here is the way an academic career works. This

is what you have to do to get tenure. This is what you have to do in order to get

published.’

114

University of New Orleans. Simmons’s journey to the presidency

serendipitously began as she supported and followed her husband’s career.

When I left Harvard, people were surprised that I ended up starting at the

University of New Orleans because they thought I was destined for other kinds of

institutions with my background; but I was married. My husband was just finishing and

started a career in a law practice. He was from New Orleans, and so I just followed my

husband’s career. I didn’t make choices based on what I felt I could do, but I made

choices based on family and the fact that it was easier for me to move around than for

him to move around. So, I ended up at the University of New Orleans and because I had

that administrative role that served me extremely well because in the late 70s there was a

huge crisis in higher education with a lack of jobs.

My husband got a job at Universal Studios running a venture capital, and we

moved again because that was an opportunity for him. I was following my husband

again; and then what happened is when I got to Los Angles, there were no faculty jobs,

no tenure-track faculty jobs. It was lucky for me that I had administrative experience

because I was able to get an administrative appointment.

My very first job was as an assistant professor in French. I decided that

everybody in my department, all the senior faculty, they were all teaching French wrong.

I don't know what came over me, but I decided that I was going to reform teaching in my

department. And I set about to do it; so I went from office to office talking with all of the

faculty and saying, ‘Don’t you think we could do better, and should we try to coordinate

our teaching and give our students a better experience?’ I think they thought I was odd;

115

and they tolerated it somehow, which I could never understand, the most junior person in

the department. And that was the first time I really had a chance to dig my hands in and

say, ‘This needs to be fixed, and maybe I’m the person to do it.’ I started there and never

stopped.

I always found something that seemed to me to warrant addressing. And I never

liked the idea, perhaps from my childhood, of seeing all the people who stood by and

watched discrimination for years and never thought to do anything about it. And I think

somehow the idea that there were problems to be addressed and people needed to

embrace the task of solving them was always with me somehow from the time I was a

child; and as soon as I got a chance to do something, I actually did it. So, I moved from

there; and I was assistant professor for couple of years, and the dean came to me and

said, ‘I have a dean who is going on leave. Would you be willing to serve as acting

assistant dean of the college?’ I was only two years out of graduate school. So, it was

pretty clear from the outset that I was inveterately, I suppose, a mixture of something;

and I just started doing that work and continued it actually from that time on, from the

earliest time when I had my first job.

My administrative path occurred because I was a typical married woman

following my husband’s career and moving to accommodate his job opportunities. This is

the way I was brought up; men’s opportunities were more important than women’s. I

didn’t think twice about doing that. A person today would probably pursue a different

path; but because I was well educated and was pretty good at what I did, I was always

able to find another job.

116

Princeton. The first time Simmons made a career decision for herself was in

1983, when she went to Princeton University to work.

When my husband and I separated in 1983, I was no longer shaping my career to

accommodate his. It wasn’t until I came to Princeton that I really landed in the sort of

place that I was after intellectually. Where I grew up in a real sense. I really didn’t quite

fit any place that I was working at before I came to Princeton.

When I was graduate dean, people said, ‘Let’s stay on that path because if you

just stay on that path you’re going to become a college presidency.’ But I didn’t want to

do that I wanted to understand undergraduate education better, so I left the graduate

school and took a tremendous pay cut and went to Princeton to deal with undergraduates

because I thought that’s what I wanted to learn more about: What are the components of

an excellent undergraduate education? I wanted to know that, and that’s why I went to

Princeton in the first place to understand that.

At the time, the advice I was given was it was a huge mistake to do that because

generally people don’t go backwards. People said, ‘Don’t do that; it’s a terrible mistake.

‘You’ll never recover from it, if you do it.’ I got all kinds of bad advice along the way.”

But I did what I thought was the right thing to do for me, and it seemed to me to be the

right thing to do, to be in an environment like Princeton that had the reputation of being

one of the best undergraduate institutions in the country; and so I said, ‘If it’s one of the

best undergraduate institutions in the country, that’s a good place for me to be to see up

close how to frame an excellent experience for undergraduates.’ And that’s exactly what

it did for me. It gave me that experience.

117

It wasn’t until I was there for a couple of years that people began to see me as

maybe having the potential to play a leadership role in higher education. I don’t

remember the first time I heard this; but after I became associate dean of the faculty at

Princeton, the dean said to me, ‘You know, you could become president one day.’ That

may be the first time that I really thought it was a serious comment. I didn’t pay much

attention to it. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I’m use to people saying those

things in a passing comment. I certainly didn’t do anything that would have propelled me

into a presidency. In fact, I continued to do just the opposite.

Simmons attributes much of her success to her mentors, later in life after she

became an administrator, a colleague (Aaron Lemonic) and a college president (Harold

Shapiro),

If you were to ask me who was most critical mentors for becoming president, then

I would cite Aaron Lemonick, dean of the faculty of Princeton; Harold Shapiro,

Princeton president. They were people who quite late in life after I had become an

administrator worked hard to provide a means for me to learn to do what I did. The only

reason they took interest in me was presumably because of the hard work that had been

done by people along the way when I was growing up, so I’m very grateful for them for

that.

At Princeton, Simmons’ talents caught the attention of Aaron Lemonic, a

colleague whose advice helped her overcome her fears of leaving to accept the Smith’s

presidency.

118

Probably the most important experience I had in that regard was working at

Princeton in the dean of the faculty office for a man named Aaron Lemonick, my beloved

mentor, who bequeathed to me the importance of being indignant about injustice in the

invisible reaches of my thoughts and actions. He was an unlikely sort of mentor for me.

He was Jewish and from Philadelphia. I was a Baptist from the South. But we had an

immediate connection for a very important reason, and that is that he said what he

thought and I said what I thought. And the first time that we met and we spoke, we both

understood that we’d found something valuable. He was very focused on details, and it

was the first time in my career that I had worked with someone who was so focused on

every minor thing, or everything that I thought at the time was minor.

We couldn’t have been more different, but he was very demanding of me, and he

didn’t patronize me. It was the first time probably in my entire career that I actually met

somebody who did not patronize me as an African-American and a woman. The lesson of

that, of course, is that as you’re trying to help people, you can give very honest criticism;

but if you do it in the context of genuinely wanting to help them, it makes all the

difference in the world.

Aaron Lemonick, did the best thing for me that I can think of. One day, one of my

responsibilities as associate dean of the faculty was I did the faculty salaries. Every year

I would have to do a spreadsheet and deal with the budget for faculty salaries. I worked

out the spreadsheet and took it into him for us to try to make some determinations. He

looked at it and said, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ He did more than say it was

the worst thing he’d ever seen. He went on and on about how awful it was. I went to my

119

office, put my head on my desk, and cried. Then I got up and redid it. The fundamental

principle here is that for everyone that told me I was awful when I was awful basically is

responsible for the quality of work I have today. I’m especially grateful that I had a

mentor who would honestly tell me when I needed improvement.

Harold Shapiro taught and still teaches Simmons by his example how to be a

strong leader.

I was personally pleased to have my mentor, President Harold Shapiro, offer

readings at my Smith College inauguration. Before he spoke at my inauguration, he had

given me a gift, a giant size bottle of aspirin, not so subtly suggesting that I would

experience more than a few headaches during my time as president. You all know that

exaggerated accounts of the plight of university leaders are generally populated by

colorful caricatures are recalcitrant faculty, rambunctious students, troublesome

activists, cureless alumni, and overly intrusive trustees.

Simmons also encountered mentors that doubted her ability to lead an Ivy League

university but she persevered.

I had a mentor who was wonderful for me, who encouraged me along the way.

But he said, ‘Ruth, you certainly have the ability to become a college president; but

you’ll never become president, of course, of an Ivy League university. But you can

become president of a college.’

Simmons repeatedly fought against inequality, and in particular, race or gender.

One example was when she confronted an employer after discovering a male colleague

was making more money than her when she held the senior position.

120

I discovered the salary of my colleague. ‘He is being paid considerably more than

I while I am the senior person of the two, and I only want you to know one thing; I know

this is unfair, and I will never feel the same way about working for you again.’ And that’s

all I said. I was always unable to sit and take it. I always spoke up for myself. And it

worked for me.

Another example was when the president of Princeton tried to get Simmons to

speak on behalf of minorities, but she refused to do it. Although she was warned that she

would never advance because of refusing, Simmons still refused.

My experience growing up in the segregated Jim Crow South, as a woman and

African American, my unusual journey through the ranks to the elite higher education

during the difficult period of integration of women and minorities into the mainstream,

and my persistent abhorrence of permitting others to define my outlook and choices or

the way I express my identity generally prevent me from wanting to be an expert on the

subject of a concept as inchoate as diversity.

On principle, I wasn’t there to do that; I wasn’t there to be the show minority

person. I’ve always made it clear since I’ve been at Princeton that I don’t want to fall

into stereotypical patterns. I don’t want to fulfill people’s stereotypical notions. I

remember when I was at Princeton, the president had a small Monday morning cabinet

and it was called the staff group, it was a small group of people, and the president asked

me to join. I remember thinking, ‘What are you talking about? I am way down the ladder

in terms of being a part of that group. So, why are you asking me?’ What began to

happen is my voice needed to be in certain places and people thought of that voice; and

121

when they needed to collaborate about certain things, they thought it useful for me to be

there, not as a token from time to time but all the time; so I was invited to serve on the

president’s cabinet and on the smaller staff group at Princeton. People thought that’s the

way it’s supposed to be. It was difficult for me at first because I didn’t notice that an

evolution was taking place until it was on me and then it was there. In the early days,

people thought I was a nuisance because I was always bringing up unpleasant things they

didn’t want to think about.

Simmons continued to speak out against injustices she encountered at Princeton.

In 1985, friends and colleagues advised Simmons against directing the African-American

studies program. Most people told her it would ruin her career because she might typecast

herself.

I fought the idea of being a token, really since the time I was a student. I

remember when Princeton came to me and asked me to direct Afro-American Studies. So,

my first comment was ‘Why are you asking me to do that?’ and demanding an answer to

it. ‘You’re asking me to do it because I’m African American. I have no qualifications

whatsoever to direct Afro-American studies. My field is French. Do you understand what

French is?’ And so, I had to make that point. And it's always been important to make that

point because that’s a part of institutional change is not to let that pass.

So I refused initially to do it. They came back to me and asked me to reconsider,

and I thought about it and decided that perhaps this might be something that was

important to do if I could do it in the right way. And so I went to the dean of the faculty

and I gave him eight conditions; and I said, ‘If you reject any one of these, I won't do it.’

122

And I gave him those conditions and he accepted them all and so I agreed to take it on.

And then as I said when I started I wouldn't continue, I would only do it on a very short-

term basis, so that's what I did.

There’s no question that they asked me because I was African American and

because they thought I could do the job, but I was a novice. I had to learn as much as I

could about the field and try to revive the department. I did it anyway because I cared

about Afro-American studies and I wanted to demonstrate how important it was to take

seriously the study of other cultures.

I started by trying to get the university to take Afro-American studies seriously. I

wanted to build a program that had the same stature as other academic programs at

Princeton. I was angry that the university permitted a program of very minimal quality to

exist alongside departments of extraordinary stature. I thought the program lacked rigor

and the university was not investing appropriately in Afro-American studies. I thought it

represented the worst of the way the academy treats African Americans. What I wanted to

say to the provost and president is that, ‘You ought to be ashamed that you would permit

a program of this quality to exist on this campus, so either get rid of it or fix it.’ Luckily

they chose to fix it.

And what did I do? You know, the strength of any academic program is its

faculty; so I started trying to recruit faculty. Not just to Afro-American studies but to the

university generally. And I think it worked out okay. We recruited Nell Painter, a

historian, and Cornel West, who was a philosopher. Toni Morrison came into the

creative writing program. Many more people were recruited eventually, including Arnold

123

Rampersad, who's a scholar of Afro-American literature and author of the masterful

study of Langston Hughes.

Simmons also created a proposal to recruit and hire more women in the sciences

at Princeton.

I was very concerned about a lack of women in the sciences at Princeton. Zero

women in math, zero in physics, almost none in engineering. I decided that I was going to

take on this problem. So, I stayed up late one night working in Nassau Hall and I wrote

out a proposal and it was a proposal argument that if Princeton could build buildings

and it could structure endowments for all manner of things, then it certainly should be

able to endow this all-important question of putting women faculty in the classroom in

front of students. So, I wrote out this proposal, and I expected it to be, I was doing it for

myself as much as anything, so I expected it to be dismissed. And so, I marched down to

the president’s office as an associate dean, and I handed him the proposal and said, ‘This

is my proposal for what Princeton’s high priority should be in getting women into this

university in these fields.’ And to my surprise, the answer was ‘Okay, so go do it.’ I

thought, ‘Go do it? How would I do that? How would I start?’ In any case, we came up

with a Target of Opportunity Program and opened up the competition for departments to

bring women; and then the math department, which had no women and no women’s

restroom in the building, came in and asked for six positions for mathematics. I gave

them all the positions. That’s how we broke the bar in math at Princeton just by daring

them to find women in mathematics and to go after them.

124

In the spring of 1993 Simmons prepared The Simmons Report, a report on race

relations at Princeton. The Report guided Princeton’s actions and served as a national

model for other institutions. Simmons did not consider herself skilled enough to address

race relations. She also worried that leading the effort would reinforce people’s

expectations that only minority administrators should handle race relations.

In a report I wrote at Princeton, I urged colleges to take a hard look at our

policies and to ask whether we are doing harm by encouraging separation of students

into enclaves. At the time, Princeton was having race-relations problems; and I was

becoming known as the problem solver, the person who gets called on to do special

projects. This was one of those special projects, and the university needed to review the

problem of race and come up with a set of recommendations. So they came to me and

asked me if I would take it on. And again I had the same reaction: ‘Why are you asking

me to do it? Just because I'm Black?’ I was the budget person; I was the priorities

committee. I was not the race person on campus. But still, because it was such a need, I

decided to take it on.

I asked for a number of things when I undertook the report. The first thing I

insisted on from the president was that I'd be given the resources to implement whatever I

recommended. And I got that agreement in advance, which was unheard of and probably

very unwise for him to do. I had an advisory group on campus, but basically I wrote the

report and developed the recommendations, about eighteen recommendations, calling for

specific measures to alleviate some of the difficulties on campus.

125

It’s something that I did and that I am proud of, but I just feel that there are so

many people who could have done a much better job than I did. It’s hard to be known for

something that doesn’t represent your very best.

The Simmons Report concluded that the problems on campus grew out of natural

misunderstandings on the part of both Black and white students. White students, for

example, resented the way Black students segregated themselves on campus, and Blacks

resented being stigmatized because of their skin color. Simmons found that persistent

stereotyping and bias directed toward minority students was both a severe impediment to

their academic success as well as a deterrent to healthy, unforced, unstructured

association with members of other races on campus. She dispelled the notion that only

victims of poor race relations were minority students who had difficulty fitting into a

dominant culture. Rather, Simmons maintained that all students suffer from being

deprived of interracial contact’s benefits. The Simmons Report called on the university to:

• Establish an office of conflict committee to defuse ongoing misunderstandings

has been adopted by other universities around the country.

• Issue a statement of its aspirations in the areas of community and diversity.

• Appoint a senior-level coordinator to oversee racial and ethnic programs.

• Reorganize and expand its affirmative action effort.

• Consider adding a race and ethnicity requirement to the curriculum.

• Strengthen the network of minority affairs advisers for underclassmen by merging

it with the resident adviser program.

• Build a comprehensive student center

126

Spelman College. Simmons stepped off the path to becoming president when she

decided to leave Princeton and to go to Spelman College. She became the right-hand

woman of Johnnetta Cole, Spelman’s president and Simmons’ role model. She taught

Simmons the practice of tough love, nurturing students with a realistic view of the

problems confronting the Black community.

I was the associate dean of faculty at Princeton, which a lot of people would say,

‘Well, that is going to take you into a very successful career.’ But instead, I stepped off

the path again and went to Spelman to be provost. Again everyone said, ‘Oh, this is

disastrous; you are now going from a major research university as associate dean of the

faculty, and you can’t get any better than that; and now you’re going to go to a small

Historically Black Institution (HBCU). You’re taking yourself off the path to become a

university president by doing it.’ That was conventional reason. I thought it would be

interesting to go to Spelman because I started off on this path because I wanted to

contribute something to society, and I thought, ‘What’s the point of doing it at a place

like Princeton where they have an unlimited supply of talent, and why should I give them

the benefit of what I know at Princeton? Why don’t I just take my knowledge to a place

like Spelman that’s a much more socially responsible course to go to Spelman?’ So I left

Princeton and went to Spelman, one of the high points of my career in higher education

administration.

Two years after leaving Princeton to go to Spelman, Princeton came to me and

said, ‘Could you come back to Princeton?’ At that time my daughter had a very difficult

adjustment to Atlanta. And the reason I ended up going back to Princeton is because she

127

had grown up in Princeton, I learned from my experience in Atlanta, which is a large city

with huge schools, and taking her from the Princeton environment into that was not a

very successful experience; so I went back to Princeton for my daughter so she could

have a better experience growing up in Princeton. I didn’t even go back because I

thought it would be useful for my career. I went back for personal reasons.

Presidency

Every day is astonishing to me. When I’m meeting with a head of state, I have a small imperceptible smile in my head which says, ‘Do you realize you were born in a one-room

shake and you’re sitting here talking to the leader of one of the greatest nations in the world? Aren’t you intimidated? Aren’t you afraid?’ And then, I’m able to smile and say,

‘Not at all, I belong here.’

-Ruth Simmons

Simmons didn’t set out to become president; it happened largely because other

people who knew her, who knew her character, and who knew her abilities and her

success, started telling others, ‘She would make a really good president.’ So, when

people were searching for a president, Simmons’ name continued to come up.

College administration allowed me to feel that I was directly contributing to

improving educational access for disadvantaged students. It was the freedom to

challenge the status quo that led me to university life when I could see no other place for

myself in the country I loved. This space is so dear to me for having been a home to

debate over the centuries, debates about the injustice of slavery, discrimination against

women and minorities, and so many other wrongs.

The question of what influenced me to become a college president is a tough one

because I didn’t set out to be a college president. There was never a conscious decision

128

that I wanted to be an administrator. I saw myself a professor for all of my career.

Circumstances arose that pushed me in that direction.

My goal was always to do the best job that I could do, and for me there are a

number of factors that led me to want to do that: the first, the influence of my mother who

always taught me when I did anything to do it well. I also was naturally curious, so I took

advantage of opportunities that came my way to learn more. I didn’t allow myself to get

typecast in a particular job. When opportunities came to learn more about something

different, then I learned more; but I didn’t do it because I was trying to advance. I did it

because I wanted to do better at what I did.

I continued to make personal choices, and they’ve worked out for me; but it’s not

fair to say I put myself on a path to a presidency. I really didn’t do that. I was probably

the person who was most surprised when I was offered a presidency because I hadn’t

designed it that way.

Simmons went to give the keynote address for Katherine Bergeron, her former

dean of college at Brown who became president of Connecticut College. According to an

article in the Connecticut Magazine, Bergeron “had worked for the famously demanding

Ruth Simmons.” Being “famously demanding” led Simmons to the presidency and

influenced those who worked for her.

This person [Katherine Bergeron] at the inaugural, for example, as we were

walking to the site of the inauguration, she said, ‘I remember some advice you gave me

once, that you will never remember. You told me once when I was in a meeting making

comments under my breath about somebody’s presentation that I should stop it because

129

that was a very negative thing to do and I would never advance if I were known as a

person who didn’t try to provide positive support to other people.’ I don’t remember that,

but I’m often in a position where I’m saying to people, ‘You know your writing is

horrible; and if you don’t do something about, it you’re not going to be able to advance,

or you need to take courses in speech because you don’t speak well.’ Those are the kinds

of things I had to tell people, but a lot of the people I’ve been able to say that to have

become immensely successful. Someone was kind enough to do that for me; I try to do it

for other people.

That ‘famously demanding’ piece is probably what made me rise to presidency

and to be a good president, being that ‘famously demanding’ aspect of my character

because I always tried to do things well and I always demanded that people who worked

for me do things well. That’s probably what propelled me to different positions; that was

my reputation. I since learned my provost at Brown has become president of the

University of Michigan [Mark Schlissel] and my first provost of Brown is president of the

University of Chicago [Robert J. Zimmer]. One of the things I’ve learned is that these

people who worked for me have garnered attention because they worked for the

‘famously demanding Ruth.’

Smith.

Though I was only fifteen, my mother had already given me everything that I needed in life. And so the answer to those questions people ask (‘What made me capable of leading a place like Smith? What made me what I am?’) has become very clear. As I look around

my life for answers, I know that my mother is the primary, the number-one reason.

-Ruth Simmons

130

Simmons discovered that people were looking for leaders like her, despite her

belief that she would never have an opportunity to lead because she was outspoken when

it came to issues of injustice. Simmons’ first encounter with the presidency was when she

was one of two finalists named for the Oberlin College position. She thought Oberlin

College, which has a long history of liberalism, would be the first of the top-rated

colleges to name a Black president. But they did not select her. Instead Smith College,

which was thought to be one of the more conservative of the Seven Sisters schools, hired

Simmons to her first presidency.

But it’s Smith that accepted me. I thought becoming a college president was

plausible the day they called and asked me to become president of Smith. That’s the day I

thought it was plausible. Before that, I was the biggest skeptic. It is overwhelming when

someone knocks unexpectedly on your door and invites you to become a leader.

I was cast as a troublemaker in my early career and accepted the disapproval that

accompanies the expression of unpopular views: unpopular views about disparate pay

for women and minorities; unpopular views about sexual harassment; unpopular views

about exclusionary practices in our universities. I was so thoroughly convinced that the

record of my actions and statements on these and other social issues made me ineligible

for a presidency that when Smith approached me about becoming president I hesitated,

fearing that perhaps they had mistaken me for someone else. Just to be sure there was no

misunderstanding, I asserted that I could only be one kind of president: one who must act

from the experience of her own journey and in concert with her own identity and

conscience.

131

When approached about becoming president of Smith College, I quickly reverted

to the messages of my childhood: perhaps I was not smart enough, not seasoned enough,

not deserving enough to lead a major college. After all, I did not have the social

connections, the networks, or the profile of previous leaders that I associated with such

an important role. Furthermore, I knew that my focus as president could not be what a

board of trustees normally sought in a president. At the same time understanding that all

I had been working to accomplish in encouraging children who were poor to aspire to a

college education was on the line in my consideration to accept this role. Ultimately,

setting aside personal misgivings, I concluded that it was simply my turn to serve.

Simmons questioned Smith College’s search committee members and the trustees

about the possibility of backlash against her appointment.

Is Smith ready for this? I pushed them hard. I was feeling somewhat tentative.

They persuaded me. They responded that they thought there would be a tremendous

positive response and that the appointment would be accepted by the alumnae.

Simmons did not have a predetermined plan for Smith.

My experience tells me that I cannot and must not attempt to import a blueprint

for the college’s future. Instead, I will continue for some months listening and learning,

posing questions and testing my impressions, debating the major issues before the college

and exploring promising new themes, and conferring with the faculty and others on the

right place for Smith in the pantheon of educational excellence. My intention will be to

develop, after wide and exacting consideration, a design for continuing Smith’s tradition

of excellence in all areas.

132

I began to be asked questions from puzzled people. ‘How can someone like you

become president of a place like Smith?’ The first few times I got the question I was

rather perplexed; as it continued, I became a little annoyed. I started thinking very

seriously about the question in order to be able to say something meaningful about what I

consider to be major influences in my life. That could prove useful for young people, I

thought, that was service I should provide. It was an opportunity finally at the head of a

women’s college to say some things about the silent barriers that continued to exist.

Accomplishments at Smith. Simmons did her own recruiting in places where

Smith was not known for drawing students, places like inner-city Los Angeles and Martin

Luther King Elementary school in the Southeast, where she talked to students about their

future. Simmons had several other achievements at Smith College, which included Praxis

– a program that allows every Smith student the opportunity to pursue an internship

funded by the college; an engineering program – the first undergraduate engineering

program at a women’s college and one of very few at liberal arts colleges; The Kahn

institute – an innovative, inter-disciplinary program that encourages the interaction of

students, faculty and visiting scholars through intensive research and other collaborations

and enhances the intellectual life of the college through symposia, performances,

exhibitions and workshops; and Medians Journal – an academic publication focused on

women of color that Simmons felt that there should be a place in the bibliography of

scholarly journals.

133

Brown.

At the very moment when Brown was looking for president, I was available and I was qualified; and why I was, I can only tell you because every day, every year, every month

of my life, when I worked I tried to learn more and I kept learning.

-Ruth Simmons

A member of the Board of Trustees at Smith told Simmons that if she ever got an

opportunity to become president of a major university she should take it because it would

be too important historically for Simmons to pass it up. The opportunity presented it self

when Brown approached Simmons to take over the helm.

I was very surprised to get the offer to be president of Smith. I was even more

surprised to be approached by Brown. That was making me nervous. I felt responsible to

the future and to opportunities that others might have after me, and I didn’t want to fail.

After all, if you look at the composition of presidencies across the country, you’ll still find

that it isn’t what it really should be. I know so many outstanding qualified people who

don’t get the chance that I’ve gotten. They’re more brilliant than I am; they’re more

qualified than I am; and yet opportunity passes them by. On one level, one doesn’t want

to feel, ever, that one is chosen because of one’s race or gender. Every time one of us

becomes a kind of icon of success we also know that the next person will have a better

time or a more difficult time because of what we do.

I was apprehensive. What if I fail? I was stunned and said, ‘Well no, of course

not, I can’t do that.’ There is some part of me still from those days in Texas that feels that

I’m really not all that, as the young people say. There was no question in my mind of the

importance of Brown or about the desirability of the position. But I needed to resolve

134

whether or not I could make a difference at Brown. And, I think over time, I was

persuaded that I could.

I certainly had the sense that there were particular expectations of me as an

African American and as a woman. Trying to navigate that and bring in a breath and

complexity when sometimes people were not ready for that has been a part of my task as

a leader for some time. And when I first started at Brown and I was asked the question,

‘What is the most important thing Brown needs to do in the very near term?’ I came up

with a set of things that I thought were very important to do. First, to greatly expand the

faculty, to support the graduate school at a higher level, to go need blind and of course

many other things that became the core for academic enrichment.

My concern about the inevitable hype that would arise if I agreed to become

president of Brown worried me considerably. More than being merely distracting,

attention to the fact that I would be the first African American president of an Ivy League

university, what I knew would be uncomfortable for me. After all, it was no more than a

convergence of historical happenstance that would lead me to wear that mantle for all

time. The case would never be made, for many, that I had earned my place of leadership

in higher education. And did I wish, after all, to spend yet more of my life proving

myself? Much of what I would do would be judged through the high stakes and distorting

prism of race. All of these factors weighed against my accepting the position as president

of Brown. But the appeal of Brown’s culture and progressive tradition was a powerful

draw. The mere possibility that I might find in Brown a university to match my impossible

hope for a community of equals in which bias has no quarter was far too tempting to

135

resist. I imagined the world impact of a genuinely high functioning, teaching, learning

and research environment in which the desire to devise solutions to world problems

impelled scholars to teach with commitment, to conduct research with honor, and

demonstrate respect and care for others.

Simmons took the reins of Brown in turmoil. The former president, Gordon Gee,

had resigned the previous year after the shortest presidency in Brown’s history and amid

a cloud of criticism from students, staff and faculty. The Corporation, the University’s

highest governing body, was divided between those who wanted a return to Brown’s

traditional focus on the liberal arts and those who advocated an increased emphasis on

science, research and corporate ties. The financial collapse that began on Wall Street hurt

Brown and many other colleges and universities. As the markets fell, Brown’s

endowment shrank to $2.04 billion as of mid-2009, from $2.78 billion in 2008. Just

months after Simmons’s arrival, terrorists launched the attacks of September 11, 2001;

and seven years after that, the entire global economy melted down. Universities, defined

by their long history and unchanging traditions, are notoriously slow to adapt; but the

events of 2001 and 2008 were a call to action. Only those institutions able to adapt to the

precarious transformations of the post-9/11 era would thrive.

In the midst of chaos Simmons received important advice after taking the helm of

Brown.

The first advice I got, and this is mostly from the Corporation leadership and

search committee, which is really – those are the first conversations I had about Brown –

and that was that I needed to act quickly, that stasis had set in at Brown. There were lots

136

of aspirations, many goals. But there was some dissatisfaction with our recent history in

getting those things done. So I was told not to take much time, to come up with a plan

pretty quickly, and enact that plan. So ‘Move fast’ is what they said. Of course, if I had

more knowledge about Brown, I definitely wouldn’t have done that. So thank goodness I

didn’t know much about Brown because I acted on that, and probably some of the best

things we did were the consequence of not having enough information about Brown.

Simmons acted on the advice of the Corporation and created a plan for Brown’s

academic enrichment; however, she was deliberate in how she presented her proposed

changes.

I came up with a package of ideas centering around my plan for academic

enrichment. It appeared to some people to be overreaching, too grandiose, impractical.

The first thing I had to do was to persuade the corporation for example, that Brown

really needed to do these things because anytime you talk about change, there’s always

the implied suggestion that something is wrong. And so people first react to the notion

you’re criticizing the institution. You really have to deal with that because that can

poison any plans. If you proceed from a position of disrespect (and because I’ve been at

the margins all of my life and I understand disrespect), I knew it was important to focus

on that because this is a broad agenda and it could very well be derailed by a sense that

rather than supporting Brown, I was criticizing Brown. And there were some who were

angry at some of the things that I said that needed to be done. At the same time, you can’t

have a very ambitious program without saying something needs to change. And so, that

was a very delicate time, the very beginning. But I had the good fortune to have allies

137

who were intelligent and who understood the need for change and who assisted me.

That’s another thing about broad institution change is that nobody is good enough to do

that alone. And so, somehow you have to bring people together in an enterprise that is so

exciting to everybody where many people have a role and engage them so thoroughly that

they take ownership of it and help you move change through the institution.

Simmons’s Plan for Academic Enrichment was a blueprint for expansion: more

faculty, more and better facilities for faculty and students, a bigger medical school, an

expanded graduate school. She reorganized the Corporation, the faculty, and the staff.

She also launched the biggest fund-raising campaign in Brown’s history, setting a goal of

$1.4 billion, almost three times higher than any previous campaign. Despite the economic

collapse of 2008, during which time Brown lost $800 million in endowments, she

exceeded her goal, raising a total of $1.61 billion.

The plan was intended to keep all of the units on the same script and to hold them

accountable. It provided a central narrative telling us where we were going and how we

were going to get there. I remember one of the early things I said to the Corporation was

if Brown is not what you think it should be, then you’re directly responsible for that. And

if the faculty salaries are not what they should be, you are directly responsible for that. I

had heard in the transition period from many faculty and others at Brown that faculty—in

terms of compensation, leave programs, equipment, and startup money for research

projects—were greatly under-resourced and that that had reached a critical point at

Brown. Faculty were paid at lower than market levels, which meant they could be

recruited away pretty easily. It meant that departments did not feel they could compete

138

aggressively for the best candidates. And this resulted in a kind of acceptance that we

should not aim for the highest-quality candidates but aim for a tier below that. Almost

twelve years later, we are still trying to build up these resources. That’s going to be an

ongoing challenge for Brown for some years to come.

The novelty of my leadership in the beginning probably was challenging but at the

same time probably helped because I think there was enough goodwill to help me that

somehow the plan came into being, it got developed, the corporation supported it and

now of course, we’ve done a lot of things that we set out to do. One of the things I have

tried to say in my time at Brown is that you cannot ignore the fundamentals. And for a

time Brown tried to ignore the fundamentals. The work we have done has been about the

fundamentals. Start with Brown’s mission and its legacy. Now here is a very unusual

thing: an institution founded during the colonial period that survives to this day. You

have to ask, ‘What opportunities do we have, and what responsibilities do we have as a

consequence of the fact that we are a 250-year-old institution with a certain legacy?’

During our earliest days, look what we were doing in the debate about slavery. We could

have insulated ourselves, particularly given the involvement of certain of our

incorporators in slavery. But even then students and others were raising questions about

a fundamental issue in this country: Was slavery right or not?

Slavery Justice Center. The conception of the Slavery Justice Center came at the

approach of Brown’s 250th anniversary, which was an ideal opportunity not only to set

the record straight about slavery’s role in the founding of the University but also to offer

139

a helpful vision of how universities might address such questions with the highest

standards.

On March 20, 2002, less than a year after my tenure as president began, the

Reparations Coordination Committee led by Randall Robinson and Charles Ogletree

threatened to sue a number of universities, including Brown, over their presumed ties to

slavery. However, given the widespread coverage of this issue, the reparations story

excited questions from many Brown alumni. ‘What were Brown’s ties to slavery?’ they

asked.

When I was appointed president of Brown University, I was unaware of any

entanglement of the university with the slave trade and slavery. Perhaps if I had known,

becoming Brown’s president would have been a more difficult decision for me, not

because of the fact of any past association with slavery but because of the strange and

inconvenient coincidence of how my own history as an all-too-near descendant of slaves

might be uncomfortable entwined with this question. I would have known that my

leadership of Brown would be colored, so to speak, by this fact. It is a peculiar

consequence of the history of slavery and race in this country that African American

perspectives on these vital issues are often feared, discounted, treated with suspicion,

held in contempt, or too readily dismissed. Where I stand in regard to race and slavery

was to be an inescapable question during my time as president. While this was an ever-

present dimension of the presidency that at the same time had all the demands of any

other university presidency, as time went by, I came to see the convergence of my history

140

and that of the university’s at this particular moment as important, historic and timely in

several very important regards.

It certainly didn’t escape me, my own past in relationship to that. I sit here in my

office beneath the portrait of people who lived at a different time and who saw the

ownership of people in a different way. You can’t sit in an office and face that every day

unless you really want to know, unless you really want to understand this dichotomy. My

grandparents’ lives bore the indelible marks of slavery’s legacy. Until her last days, my

grandmother transported heavy loads on her head and dressed in long dresses

reminiscent of the rough cotton manufactured for the specific use of slaves. My parents

continued the fieldwork of their parents, toiling in cotton fields for much of their lives for

the enrichment of plantation owners. Born on a hillock overlooking those very fields, I

came along too late to be fully enfranchised in the sharecropping system but soon enough

to experience firsthand the long days that my parents and siblings spent dragging cotton

sacks down unforgiving rows from sun up to sun down to meet the goal imposed by the

farm’s owner. There was no overseer with whip in hand, it is true; but low wages and

brutal living conditions were an effective means of keeping poor farmers from escaping

the brutal sharecropping system. The modern underground railroad in which family

members extracted themselves from this practice, making it possible for others to join

them in cities across the country, was the vehicle my family employed to escape this

environment.

The nearness of my life to the true end of slavery holds me and obligates me.

Would that one could simply set aside such images and realities and turn to a new day,

141

decree that all that is past shall never be revisited. But knowing and understanding this

history is as vital to the improvement of our lives as nourishment is necessary to our

survival. Further, minimizing the scope and cruelty of massive human rights violation

can easily empower ever greater atrocities. Thus, I believe that the practice of disclosing

such deeds and ties as fully as possible is critical to the progress of human dignity,

equality and understanding.

My time in the bull’s eye on matters of race and slavery was uncomfortable, to be

sure; but the discomfort of this reality taught me much about who I am and how much I

can bear. It connected me in a much stronger way to those who placed me on this path

through their suffering and their hope. It helped me better understand my responsibilities

to history and to those who came after me. The journey to this recognition was longer

than it should have been; but I would not finally have wanted it to be any different, for

through it all, while grappling with what I owed to the public and private dimensions of

my life, I found as Cladis said, ‘It is better to cope with the inevitable conflict than to

eliminate one for the sake of the other.’

How does one repair a kind of social breach in human rights so that people are

not just coming back to it periodically and demanding apologies, so that society learns

from it, acknowledges what has taken place and then moves on? What I'm trying to do,

you see, in a country that wants to move on, I'm trying to understand as a descendant of

slaves how to feel good about moving on. There are those who believe that African

Americans carry a chip on their shoulders that we ought to get over slavery. You know,

142

’Why is that still relevant today?’ they say. ‘Just move on.’ How do you move on from

who you are?

I don't think there can be a person with a better background for dealing with this

issue than me. If I have something to teach our students, if I have something to offer

Brown, it's the fact that I am a descendant of slaves. My own history offered the

University a singular opportunity to tell its story in a light different from that of its peers

that share similarly compromised histories but have been slow to examine and disclose

this history with the same rigor they devoted to other subjects. To place in context how

this confluence of factors played out during my presidency and then to explore briefly

how governance structures that wrestle successfully with moral issues are central to the

needs of modern institutions. I must note how Brown commenced the struggle to

understand its entanglement with slavery. As I do so, I offer a personal perspective on

these events in the hope that the record of these times can be improved by this additional

perspective.

In thinking about how to resolve conflicting assertions about Brown and slavery, I

pondered an uncomfortable dilemma. Virtually any action I chose to take to address

alumni inquiries could be misunderstood or deemed compromised because of my

position, race and personal story. Others were concerned about this as well. Members of

my cabinet having persuaded me that this was an issue best explored as a scholarly

project without my involvement or oversight, I appointed a committee led by historian

James Campbell, then a professor at Brown, to uncover and report the facts objectively.

Once the committee was appointed, their process established, and their work sufficiently

143

beyond my reach, I thought this would be a rather straightforward undertaking, my

naïveté and the reaction to their work.

Many questioned the need to explore Brown’s involvement in slavery.

I would be wrong to suggest that discomfort with the study arose solely from a

narrow basis of long-held grievances and anger. They also came from the sensible and

sane, from supporters and advocates, from friends and loved ones. A long-time friend and

eminent scholar called to express her concern that perhaps I had ‘lost my mind’ in taking

on such a controversial subject. Before any findings or conclusions had been issued by

the committee, there were predictions of disastrous outcomes: fundraising would decline,

the university’s reputation would be sullied, and I would personally be attacked and

ridiculed if not terminated. The mere act of starting an inquiry on the university’s ties to

slavery elicited these strong concerns.

The committee led by historian James Campbell presented The Slavery Justice

Report, which explored events pertaining to Brown’s ties to slavery. Brown started as

Rhode Island College. Its founder, the Reverend James Manning, freed his only slave, but

accepted donations from slave owners and traders, including the Brown family of

Providence. Moses Brown and other members of the Brown family recognized slavery’s

ills and took action to overturn it. During this period, Brown students gave orations

questioning slavery and Francis Wayland, a professor who taught Moral Science, posited

for his students the problems inherent in arguments favoring the morality of slavery.

In the listing for the Brown family of Rhode Island, for example, reference to

slavery appears in this context: ‘James and Obadiah Brown of the fourth generation

144

turned to trade with the West Indies, delivering livestock and food from Rhode Island and

bringing back molasses and rum, and also transported slaves from Africa.’ The fact that

Brown’s history was corrected or amplified to include a fuller record of what transpired

in the founding of the university is no less than a testament to the strength of universities,

the soundness of their commitment to fact-based inquiry and learning, and their

willingness to face the most fraught and complex questions.

At Brown, the uncovering of ties to slavery began with the notion that our

entanglement with slavery was ordinary and unremarkable because holding and trading

slaves was simply the accepted practice at the time of the university’s founding. The work

of the Committee brought to light very starkly that, by the extremely inhuman and deadly

nature of the trade, it is impossible, immoral, and perhaps dangerous to erase evidence

of its practice and consequences.

This is the lesson that I take from Brown’s early history: a governance process

that is broadly inclusive is the greatest protection against the aspect of our institutional

duality that could sacrifice important ethical principles in the service of utility. The

bodies that today make up the decision-making process at Brown must look to their

mandates and practices to make certain that when their motives and intentions are

questioned one hundred years hence, they can be said to have wrestled earnestly with

difficult choices, to have disclosed their approach to the questions at hand, and to have

acted based on a manifest intention to do good for humankind. None of us is ever wise

enough or pure enough to be assured that we can do what is wise and just in all

circumstances; but broad, genuine, and robust governance can often protect us from

145

harboring the seeds of massive exploitation and carrying out monumentally unprincipled

actions.

We’re going to have on the front lawn of the University a sculpture done by a

leading African American sculptor that is going to be a recognition of slavery. I must say

I’m not a fan of apologies. I think they are rather superficial. People tend to issue

apologies and then move on. And I thought that was unworthy of a process that had been

so deep and expansive and important in the history of the University. I thought history

ought to reflect not something singular. One of the clearest messages in the Slavery

Justice Report is that institutions of higher education must take a greater interest in the

health of their local communities, especially kindergarten through 12th grade education.

Lack of access to a good education, particularly for urban school children, is one of the

most pervasive and pernicious social problems of our time. Colleges and universities are

uniquely able to improve the quality of urban schools. Brown is committed to undertaking

that work. But the university’s new Slavery and Justice Center should not be a hub for

social and political activism. Inquiry with integrity is no small thing, especially in a

world full of misinformation.

The report, criticized and misunderstood, was an admirable piece of scholarship

that uncovered Brown’s long-hidden past.

David Horowitz advertisement. Simmons faced various challenges at Brown

including battles over ROTC, the future of athletics at Brown, and a nasty disagreement

with the near-bankrupt city of Providence over the amount of the University’s

contributions to the municipal budget. However, one of her most notable challenges was

146

her dispute with David Horowitz. Horowitz’s advertisement opposing Brown making

financial reparations because of their presumed ties to slavery made Simmons question

her belief in the right to free speech.

It is impossible to know what you'll be given to deal with when you're in a

leadership position. Would it have been my fondest wish to come into a presidency at the

very moment the Horowitz matter was being resolved? No.

At the time that my appointment as president of Brown was confirmed, I was

informed of the David Horowitz affair in which the Brown Daily Herald (BDH) published

a Horowitz advertisement against reparations. Students protested the publishing of the ad

removed BDH. Causing a national uproar over free speech at Brown.

In that ad, Horowitz implied that were it not for the transatlantic slave trade

‘Blacks would still be slaves.’ This was not only strangely contorted reasoning but also

an unwittingly blatant defense of the manifest immorality of slavery. Further, he implied

that African Americans were fortunate to have been taken from Africa since today their

per capita income is greater than that of modern inhabitants of the nations from which

they were taken. While at the time I did not voice my opinion about these outrageous

assertions nor about the questionable Brown Daily Herald decision to publish the ad, the

campus upheaval made it evident to me that what awaited me as the great granddaughter

of slaves heading an institution like Brown would not be a stroll along the Champs

Elysee. In matters of race, I would need to pursue a measured course as the university’s

spokesperson even as I wrestled with emotions that I could not escape given my heritage.

To set aside those emotions would not only be impossible but to do so would signal a kind

147

of self-loathing that could cripple any effectiveness I sought to have as a leader. From the

moment of the Horowitz ad, I knew that I would wish at times to be free of the burden of

holding private my thoughts on such issues. I was to learn in time the wisdom of what

Mark Cladis observed about the conflict between public and private lives.

At the time, I felt it was an enormous burden to carry. I could not obscure the fact

that my race would be the centerpiece of it all, in a sense. But I just don't believe it's fair

or appropriate for people to complain about the fact that they are dealing with issues that

are particular to their identities. I had to insist that Brown permit a speaker whose every

assertion was dangerous and deeply offensive to me on a personal level. Indeed, he

maintained that Blacks were better off having been enslaved. Attending his talk and

hearing his perspective was personally challenging but not in the least challenging to my

convictions about the absolute necessity of permitting others to hear him say these

heinous things. I could have avoided the talk as his ideas were known to me, but to have

done so would have been to choose personal comfort over a freedom whose value is so

great to my own freedoms that hearing his unwelcome message could hardly be assessed

as too great a cost.

The voice and pen of a president should be used with the greatest care and the

deepest concern for potential misuse and abuse of office. There are many hidden levers

that easily and invisibly enable a leader to suppress freedom, punish individuals for

offenses taken, or advance a private agenda. As upsetting as the ad was, I understood

that to speak against it would be to incite further disagreement within the Brown

148

community and possibly suppress expression that universities desire to protect. Thus, in

the context, I chose to remain silent about my views on the ad.

I think because if one has ever grown up in an environment where it was a crime

to speak, in effect, one can appreciate more than others the freedom that we have to

express our views. I felt that if I silence others then I can be silenced myself; and I want

that not ever to happen again because you know in the Jim Crow South, even one’s

intonation in combination with an arrogant look could result in swift punishment by

whites. The whole syndrome of the uppity nigger in the South, was all about silence. The

whole effort to prevent Blacks from being educated so they could find their voice was all

about silence. The whole effort to prevent Blacks from voting was all about silence. So,

this whole notion of keeping people from speaking whatever their views happened to be

even when they’re heinous views, that's something that means a lot to me. So, I went to

this event to hear a man say that my forebears were better off being slaves because I

want to protect their right to oppose what he says to speak freely in the interest especially

of human rights.

Goldman Sachs. Simmons’ successes at Brown were not immune to criticism. In

2009, Simmons endured intense criticism from students and alumni for her years-long

service on the board of Goldman Sachs, the banking and investment firm. The question

arose as to how Simmons could serve on a board of a bank that works to profit on the

inflation of bubbles in poor and minority communities (Cheng & Shaw, 2011). Brown is

considered to be a bastion of activism against exploitation by corporations and Simmons

lectured on inequities on racial issues and the existence of slavery in Rhode Island

149

(Cheng & Shaw, 2011). One possible explanation for Simmons serving on the board is

the new relationship developing between academia and Wall Street. There appears to be

an increasing number of board seats being purchased by bankers while university

president’s service on corporate boards is also increasing (Zywicki, 2010).

I can explain the reason I was on the Goldman board — because both Brown and

Smith encouraged me to be on the board — and that is all I can say. And if I thought for a

minute that my being president of Brown served Brown poorly or was an embarrassment

to Brown, I would have been gone a long time ago. It’s not my intent to embarrass the

University. Quite the contrary, I think my being president of Brown has lifted Brown.

Serving on Goldman’s board gave me economic savvy to take certain risks that

might not have been taken otherwise, such as the introduction of need-blind admissions.

I’m not the person to judge, but I have never been unwilling to have responsibility for

what I do. Everything I do and everything I say is subject to people’s judgment. I’m

entirely comfortable with that.

If you look at the history, there are a lot of people who have left Brown and gone

to Goldman. That’s been going on for a long time and has nothing to do with me

whatsoever. I don’t think their recruiting here [at Brown] has anything to do with me at

all, actually. They recruit everywhere, and one of the things that Goldman says about

Brown students is they like Brown students for the same reason other companies like

Brown students: They tend not to be cookie-cutter. That means they can walk into an

organization and they can think for themselves and add value because they have not had

the traditional educational program in which they have been passive learners.

150

Simmons insisted that she joined Goldman’s board expressly to advocate for

women and minorities. The goal was to make certain fields more accessible to women

and minorities through her service on the boards of Goldman, Texas Instruments and

Pfizer.

We had a big push to think about how we could improve the knowledge and

ability of women to manage their financial affairs. Also, at the same time, there was a

good deal of interest in the fact that women have not done so well in the financial sector

and on Wall Street. The fact that other people have opinions about things has really not

touched me very deeply. I have a very, very strong compass, and that was given to me by

my parents. Criticism in a newspaper article will not throw me off my course, frankly.

Simmons stepped down from Goldman Sach’s board in 2010. She said she had

joined the board at the behest of the trustees at Smith, but she had no apologies for having

followed their advice. She denied responsibility for any of the company's past actions that

have inspired criticism.

There are lots of things in a complex institution that go on. You're not in charge

of everything that your friends do and every policy that organizations that you're

affiliated with issue.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,

Simmons owned 27,386 restricted stock units in Goldman Sachs, worth $4.2 million at a

closing share price of $153.93 (Poses, 2010). That was on top of her salary at Brown,

which was $576,000 (Poses, 2010). According to the filing, the units convert to shares on

the first trading day in the third quarter of the year following her retirement from the

151

board. Simmons also has 10,000 options that she can exercise on the date she ceases to be

a director, according to the filing. Simmons was paid $323,539 for her work on the board

(Dealbook, 2010).

Accomplishments at Brown. Before concluding her presidency on June 30, 2012

Simmons charged Brown to create a new – different and assertive – role, not only in

education, but also in society. She vowed that Brown could be among those universities

willing to move boldly to meet the needs of today’s learners; but only if it believed in the

majesty of its purpose and its right to chart its own course. Simmons had numerous

successes at Brown. She launched the Plan for Academic Enrichment securing more

faculty, more and better faculty and student facilities, an expanded graduate school and a

larger medical school. She also launched the biggest fundraising campaign in Brown’s

history, with a $1.4 billion goal, almost three times higher than any previous campaign.

Simmons superseded her objective, raising a total of $1.61 billion. Simmons also

introduced the Slavery Justice Center after publishing the Slavery Justice Report, which

explored events pertaining to Brown’s ties to slavery.

Under Simmons’ leadership, Brown promised to devote millions of dollars to

improve public education in the Providence area, including a $10 million endowment to

create an education fund for the city’s children (Borg, 2007). Simmons also personally

donated $25,000 to help purchase graphic calculators for the entire ninth-grade class at

Hope High School (Borg, 2007). Texas Instruments partnered with Brown to provide 350

calculators, but Simmons paid for more than half. Brown provided 15 volunteers to serve

as teaching assistants at Hope High School and covered the cost of replacing math

152

teachers while they were trained to use the new technology, through its Urban Education

Policy Program (Borg, 2007).

Summary

This chapter captured Simmons’ voice by providing the framework of HerStory a

journey from Grapeland, Texas, to Brown University and one of her sojournering across

racial, class, gender, geographical, educational, and academic institutional borders. I

examine the challenges and barriers African American women administrators

experienced and compare those challenges and barriers to what Simmons experienced. I

use a Black feminist theory as a lens to examine Simmons’ HerStory.

153

Chapter 6

Discussion

I was intent on doing something productive and on being everything my parents taught me to be. Their values were clear: do good work; don’t ever get too big for your

breeches: always be an authentic person; don't worry too much about being famous and rich because that doesn't amount to too much.

-Ruth Simmons

The purpose of this study was to draw insight from how Dr. Ruth Simmons, the

first African American to head Smith College and an Ivy League institution and the first

woman to head Brown University, journeyed to the presidency and what shaped her

development. Simmons’ HerStory is a narrative of her becoming rather than being. It is

also the story of her moving forward. HerStory provides insight into and a deep

understanding of how Simmons became a college president and what shaped her

development spanning from her childhood to her presidency at Brown. These multiple

firsts place her in a unique category and emphasize the need for more opportunities to be

created for African American women to be presidents of four-year PWIs, such as Ivy

League and doctorate granting institutions.

The following research questions were explored:

• What was the experience of the first African American woman college president

of an Ivy League institution?

• What strengths and attributes did the first African American woman college

president use to achieve the presidency of an Ivy League institution?

• What challenges and barriers did the first African American woman college

president overcome in achieving the presidency of an Ivy League institution?

154

In this chapter, I juxtapose Chapter 4 with Chapters 5 to highlight differences.

Chapter 4 examined several sources of Simmons’ HerStory from childhood to her

becoming the first African American president of an Ivy League school. In contrast,

Chapters 5 used solely the voice of Simmons, permitting her to take back her narrative by

telling HerStory. I then examine the challenges and barriers African American women

administrators experienced and compare those challenges and barriers to what Simmons

experienced.

I use a Black feminist theory to consider how: Simmons sojourned across racial,

class, gender, geographical, educational, and academic institutional borders and positive

transformation of previously segregated spaces; she struggled with the intersection of her

identities of being both African American and a woman; she coped, survived, resisted,

and acted to change systems of domination by presenting the Other.

Lastly, I discuss why I believe Simmons is an activist, change agent, and

transformational leader and return to Black feminist theory as a lens to examine

Simmons’ HerStory while applying Few, Stephens and Rouse-Arnett’s (2003) three

dimensions of power that empower women: personal, interpersonal and institutional.

Juxtaposition

Chapter 4 wove together Simmons’ HerStory from several sources and provided

only a glimpse of HerStory from childhood to her becoming the first African American

president of an Ivy League school. Chapter 5 provided a reframing of Simmons HerStory

by using solely Simmons’ voice, thus permitting Simmons to take back her narrative.

155

In the reframing of HerStory, Simmons revealed not only how her parents taught

her to navigate a pernicious system but also valuable lessons she learned living in the pre-

Civil Rights era. Only with the reframing of HerStory can we begin to understand why

she always mentions her mother when asked to list individuals who have played a

significant role in her life. She clarified why the detailed account of her mother

meticulously ironing is so important to her. Simmons observed how her mother possessed

dignity and self-respect doing menial work, even when those she worked for were not

respectful, showing Simmons the importance of respecting others but also demanding

others’ respect.

The reframing of HerStory also revealed Simmons’ coming of age. She told how

education aided her in establishing a more assured place and identity but also allowed her

to exert some control in a context in which she had little. Simmons’ pursuit of education

included her vigorously seeking answers to better understanding the prejudice,

discrimination, and injustices she endured. Simmons’ search led her to the humanities,

resulting in her changing her major from theater to French. In this pursuit of answers,

Simmons also discovered her rebelliousness and the ability to assert, be alone, and stand

alone in her views.

Furthermore, in the reframing of HerStory Simmons shared how her pursuit of a

higher education was an arduous journey. Simmons recounted how she doubted herself

and contemplated dropping out of college several times. The first time, she didn’t have

the money to leave. She considered dropping out again at Dillard because of the immense

grief she experienced in losing her mother. Later, she considered dropping out of

156

Wellesley because although she mastered understanding written French, she struggled

with the spoken form; however, a professor encouraged her to stay. Yet again at Harvard

while working on her doctorate, she discovered she would have to prove herself again

and again.

In addition, in the reframed narrative, Simmons revealed she did not intentionally

set out to become a college president. Simmons also revealed she did not have any

guidance or advice as a young faculty member because a majority of the time she was the

only African American woman. Instead, Simmons navigated her pathway to the

presidency by doing what she wanted and what was best for her, while those around her

told her she was making bad decisions. Twice Simmons stepped off the path to the

presidency: first when she went from being the graduate dean at Princeton to the

undergraduate school, taking a tremendous pay cut because she wanted to understand

undergraduate education better; and again when she left Princeton as associate dean of

the faculty to go to Spelman because she wanted to contribute something to society. In

order to do so, Simmons took her knowledge to Spelman College, which she felt was

more socially responsible.

Simmons also divulged in her reframed HerStory how she continuously fought

against race and gender inequality. For example, she confronted a supervisor after

discovering a male colleague she was senior to was making more money than she; and

when the president of Princeton requested Simmons to speak on behalf of minorities

(women or African Americans), she refused.

157

Through this reframing, we also learn Simmons was not afraid to ask questions.

When Princeton asked her to lead the Afro-American studies revitalization project,

Simmons asked, “Why are you asking me to do that?” “You’re asking me to do it

because I’m African American.” She had no qualifications to direct Afro-American

studies; her field was French. She believed, however, she was being asked to do it

because she was African American. Initially she refused, but then decided to accept. Yet

again, when she was asked to handle the race relations project, later called The Simmons

Report, Simmons questioned Princeton: “Why are you asking me to do it? Just because

I'm Black?’ Before Simmons agreed to take over the project, she created a list of

demands that was Princeton’s president preapproved.

Only though reframing Simmons’ HerStory do we see Simmons’ personal

struggle with deciding to become president of Smith College and later Brown University.

When Simmons was approached to take the helm of Smith College, she found herself

once more questioning why; but this time she questioned herself and Smith. Plagued with

self-doubt, Simmons challenged Smith to carefully consider its readiness for an African

American to be president since she would be the first to take the helm. Simmons

experienced this same apprehension when Brown University approached her to become

president as not only the first African American but also the first woman to lead Brown.

She was convinced countless others were more qualified, but Brown selected her. Taking

over Brown’s presidency in the midst of turmoil, she developed the Plan for Academic

Enhancement. In fact, turmoil appeared to foreshadow Simmons’ presidency at Brown.

She endured personal and professional struggles when, researching Brown’s connection

158

to slavery, the Horowitz dispute about transatlantic slave trade arose and her seat on the

board of Goldman Sachs was questioned.

Juxtaposing Chapter 4 with Chapters 5 shows notable differences. The most

visible is that Chapters 5 is a reframing of Simmons HerStory, which permitted Simmons

to take back her narrative. In summary, through this reframing we see:

• The lessons Simmons learned living in the pre-Civil Rights era

• Why the detailed account of her mother ironing was so important to her

• How Simmons sought answers to better understand the prejudice, discrimination

and injustices she endured

• Simmons pursuit of a higher education as an arduous journey

• How Simmons did not intentionally set out to become a president

• How Simmons stepped off the path to the presidency several times

• Simmons continuous fight against race and gender inequality

• Simmons fearlessly questioning why

• Simmons’ struggle with deciding to become president of both Smith College and

Brown University

Challenges

One of the inevitable things that happened was I was the only other Black person in sciences/medicine. When you are the only one and if you have any ability at all, then

people focus on you. It all started because of my unique status as a faculty member. It’s probably also true that in those days I was an anomaly. I was an African American,

woman, and faculty member with a degree from Harvard; and there were not many of me out there at the time, and that garnered attention early on, the fact that I had a fairly

trouble-free education in which I clearly excelled.

-Ruth Simmons

159

The research reviewed in Chapter 2 revealed that African American women face a

myriad of difficulties on the pathway to academic leadership. These include:

• Tokenism

• Having to prove their worth and work harder than White counterparts

• Negative stereotype of their positions as being secondary

• Blatant disregard and disrespect

• Organizational culture

• Unequal expectations for African American women

• Lack of constituents’ and supervisors’ support

• Subtle racist acts

• Negative perceptions of race and gender

• Mostly White and male administrative structure

• Alienation and isolation

To illustrate how Simmons’ experiences aligned with these challenges, I have

woven her words from the previous chapters with discussion grounded in the research.

Tokenism. Tokenism involves making only a perfunctory effort or symbolic

gesture toward accomplishing goal, such as racial integration (Fontaine & Greenlee,

1993; Moses, 1997; Mosley, 1980; Trower & Chait, 2002). Fontaine and Greenlee (1993)

as well as Moses (1997) found that African American women academic leaders

experienced tokenism by being considered spokespersons for all African Americans

instead of individuals with other qualifications. Examples of tokenism include asking

160

African American women to sit on committees as experts on African Americans and to

solve problems or handle situations involving racial difficulties that others should

manage.

Simmons had similar experiences. For example, when she was approached at

Princeton to direct Afro-American studies, Simmons immediately questioned, “Why are

you asking me to do that?” She confronted the individuals by answering her own

question: “You’re asking me to do it because I’m African American. I have no

qualifications whatsoever to direct Afro-American studies. My field is French. Do you

understand what French is?” From the time she was a student Simmons resisted being a

token. She made a point of not being anyone’s token, saying, “a part of institutional

change is not to let that pass.”

Simmons journeyed through the ranks of elite higher education during a period

when women and people of color were being integrated into mainstream society. As a

woman and an African American, Simmons was expected to be the expert on diversity.

However, Simmons resisted that role. She emphasized, “my persistent abhorrence of

permitting others to define my outlook and choices or the way I express my identity

generally prevent me from wanting to be an expert on the subject of a concept as inchoate

as diversity.”

Simmons emphasized that she was did not want to be a token minority figure: “I

wasn’t there to be the show minority person. I’ve always made it clear that I don’t want

to fall into stereotypical patterns. I don’t want to fulfill people’s stereotypical notions.”

At Princeton, the president asked Simmons to join the small Monday morning cabinet

161

called the Staff Group. Simmons immediately thought, “What are you talking about? I

am way down the ladder in terms of being a part of that group. So, why are you asking

me?” But Simmons soon learned that her voice needed to be heard in certain places and

people thought of her voice when it came to certain issues: “. . . when they needed to

collaborate about certain things, they thought it useful for me to be there, not as a token

from time to time but all the time; so I was invited to serve on the president’s cabinet and

on the smaller staff group at Princeton.”

Having to prove one’s worth and work is harder than White counterparts.

Simmons believes being a woman at certain levels trying to lead is hard “because people

still find it difficult to be led by women” and because men are much more successful in

the academy. Very early in her career, Simmons wrestled with being so different and

“naturally marginalized always.” She quickly realized, “Wherever I went and whatever I

did, I would always have to justify myself. That was going to be my life. I was never

going to be able to escape it.” Thus, Simmons took charge of her situation by accepting

her differences and preparing for the struggles that lay ahead: “I could let go of trying to

prove myself to people because I would have an extraordinary, extraordinarily difficult

job to do with everybody that I met. So, I decided to let go of that.” After making this

decision, Simmons set out to leave a mark “for all the people who are marginalized by

fighting the very idea that people because they are different are less.” Simmons started

expressing her ideas about what institutions needed to be doing, instead of focusing on

what they were not doing. This approach became a successful strategy for Simmons, who

162

noted, “I wanted to give voice to that. That was very important to me. So, I gradually

found myself doing that.”

Moses (1997) and Robinson (2012) documented the academic climate for African

American women leaders. Moses found that African American women administrators

experienced racist and sexist treatment from both White men and women incapable of

dealing with African American women in a position of authority. Robinson (2012)

discovered that African American women believed they had to work harder and give

greater than 100% to prove their worth.

Negative stereotype of one’s position being secondary. According to Robinson

(2012) and Williams (2012), one of the reasons for the under-representation of African

American women academic leaders is that these women do not fall into the stereotypes

that society has of Black women being too, strong, aggressive, or loud. They found that

African American women believed that accepting these stereotypes was not an option and

that many women felt their knowledge and abilities were ignored, making them feel they

were not as capable as their White counterparts.

Because of Simmons’ unpopular views about disparate pay for women and people

of color, sexual harassment, and exclusionary practices in universities, Simmons was cast

as a troublemaker early in her career. Simmons’ views attracted Smith College’s

attention, but she ensured that Smith College was aware of where she stood. She noted, “I

could only be one kind of president: one who must act from the experience of her own

journey and in concert with her own identity and conscience.”

163

Blatant disregard and disrespect. Robinson (2012) and Williams (2012) found

African American women leaders in academia were not perceived as equal among their

peers. African American women were often found in the professorate’s lowest ranks of

the and often have lower salaries then their White peers. In Williams (2012) study, seven

of the nine participants indicated they had experienced salary inequities. Upon earning

tenure and associate professor rank, one of the participants thought she would earn the

same salary as her male colleague who was also an associate professor. Ultimately, she

was given neither the same salary nor an explanation for not receiving the salary increase.

Simmons’ encounter with blatant disregard and disrespect came when a superior

told her, “I’m not going to raise your salary as much as I am for the guy who’s in the next

office cause you don’t really need it because you’re married and you don’t need the

money.” Noting that she did not have anyone to whom she could report the incident,

Simmons asked, “Who do you go to talk to about pay discrimination when there is

nobody who’s going through that at the same time?” Taking matters into her own hands,

she told her superior, “He is being paid considerably more than I while I am the senior

person of the two, and I only want you to know one thing: I know this is unfair, and I will

never feel the same way about working for you again.” She emphasized, “And that’s all I

said. I was always unable to sit and take it. I always spoke up for myself.”

Unequal expectations for African American women. Robinson (2012) revealed

African American women academic leaders were expected to do more. In Robinson’s

study, the women felt they had to not only meet their White colleagues’ expectations, but

also exceed them. The women indicated they had seen White colleagues get positions and

164

move up quickly. However, these African American women had to put in more time and

effort just to get to the level they reached.

Throughout her academic career, Simmons sensed particular expectations of her

as an African American and as a woman. She remarked, “Trying to navigate that and

bring in a breath and complexity when sometimes people were not ready for that has been

a part of my task as a leader for some time.” When Princeton was having race-relations

problems, Simmons was asked if she would take on those problems. Again, Simmons

questioned their motives: “Why are you asking me to do it? Just because I'm Black? I

was the budget person; I was the priorities committee. I was not the race person on

campus.” Even though race relations was not Simmons’ field, she agreed to head a race

relations project because of the need: “I decided to take it on. I asked for a number of

things when I undertook the report [The Simmons Report on race relations]. The first

thing I insisted on from the president was that I'd be given the resources to implement

whatever I recommended. And I got that agreement in advance.”

Lack of constituents’ and supervisors’ support. Cain (2015), Madsen (2012)

and Robinson (2012) found that African American women academic leaders did not have

a support system and that a majority of the women lacked support from their supervisors

or colleagues. They faced major challenges establishing mentoring relationships due to

the lack of mentoring opportunities. For African American women, finding a mentor can

be difficult because it can be very time-consuming to serve in this capacity for the

already limited African American women in higher education.

165

As a young faculty member, Simmons received no advice. She noted, “I had no

mentoring. I was the only African-American faculty member in all of the humanities at

the University of New Orleans when I started.” Later in her academic career, she found

several mentors she believed were imperative to her journey to the presidency Simmons

explained,

I tried never to rely solely on identity as the basis for working with people or

being mentored by people. Not surprisingly, the people who supported me …

were very different from me. Because I never thought it was very useful to use

your ethnicity or your race or your gender as the basis for determining who has

something important to say to you, I always looked for people who had something

admirable about them, something to teach.

Subtle racist acts. Subtle racist acts are defined as beliefs in or doctrines

asserting racial differences in character, intelligence, and the superiority of one race over

another (Robinson, 2012). In a study of African American women academic leaders,

Robinson (2012) found that based on others’ perceptions, these leaders felt racism or

gender differences, though subtle, were still a part of academe’s culture.

When Simmons was a Ph.D. student at Harvard, she was asked to drop out of the

program and become a full-time staff member at Radcliffe. She recalled, “I was, first of

all, the only Black student in my Ph.D. program, and they wanted me to drop the program

in order to become an administrator. I was skeptical of letting others create that path for

me.” In the end, Simmons agreed because so few African-Americans were on the faculty

at the time and she wanted to have an impact. She noted, “I realized that I would see very

166

few minorities in my classes. And that the only way I could influence what was

happening with regard to minorities was to take a central position.”

Mostly White and male administrative structure. Robinson (2012) found

African American women academic leaders agreed that their governance structure was

mostly White and male dominated. The perception was that leaders were supposed to be

men, and this perception was especially true in higher education.

The biggest obstacle Simmons faced in her journey was working mostly in PWIs

where people didn’t know what to do with her. Developing her own approach, she began

to speak out against injustices, Simmons said,

I always believed that it was important for me to be unapologetically who I am.

So, if I’m in a meeting and they said something that was offensive to me, I often

said it was offensive to me. I always reacted as honestly as I could. If I saw

policies that were unfair, I tended to point that out.

Alienation and isolation. In their studies, Robinson (2012) and Trower and Chait

(2002) discovered African American women academic leaders who persisted in their

desire to succeed in senior administration. Expressing feelings of isolation and loneliness

stemming from lack of support, these women felt that their White counterparts had an

unfair advantage in obtaining information about position openings and leadership

opportunities.

Simmons was always isolated because most of the time she was the only Black

person and often the only woman. She combated isolation by joining national

organizations: “It was very helpful to have national organizations that provided some

167

kind of support system. I joined women’s groups whenever I could; I joined African

American support groups whenever I could.”

Simmons’ actions not only speak to the various forms of oppression Black women

have been subjected to but also exemplify how Black women are not mere victims

(Turner-Essel, 2013). Similar to other Black women throughout history, Simmons

resisted by refusing to accept or comply or by attempting to prevent something through

action and/or argument. Numerous scholars have described ways in which Black women

have actively struggled throughout history to question, confront, resist, and change

prevailing structures of domination by participating in formally organized social

movements for institutional transformation and legal, political and economic equality

(Collins, 1990; Davis, 1981; hooks, 1997; James, 1999; Olson, 2001). Such efforts

represent direct stances against oppressive structures. Other significant challenges of

oppression have been a matter of everyday life and survival for Black women.

Theoretical Framework

In this section, I used Black feminist theory to consider Simmons’ HerStory

because it speaks directly to African American women’s lived experiences (Collins,

2000; Howard-Hamilton, 2003; Walker, 2003). By using Black feminist theory as a

guiding lens I will:

• Account for and analyze Simmons’ multiple intersecting identities;

• Conceptualize Simmons’ struggles against intersecting oppressions;

• Emphasize Simmons’ methods of coping, surviving, resisting, and acting to

change systems of domination; and

168

• Apply Few, Stephens and Rouse-Arnett’s (2003) three dimensions of power that

empower women.

I close by discussing why I believe Simmons is an activist, change agent, and

transformational leader.

Identity. In order to analyze Simmons’ intersecting identities (social class,

race/ethnicity, gender and age), it is important to acknowledge she is African American

and a woman. There are other identities Simmons possesses that extend beyond her race

and gender, but in this analysis I focus on the intersecting identities of Simmons being

African American and a woman. The intersection of these two identities positions her to

experience both in tandem (Collins, 1990). Intersectionality is the concept that oppression

within society does not act independently but creates a system that reflects the

“intersection” of multiple forms of discrimination.

Simmons’ HerStory is one of ongoing struggles created by the intersection of her

identities of being both African American and a woman. The outcome of this struggle led

Simmons to adopt two lives, one for self and the other for society. Doing this created

tension for Simmons as she constructed her own definition of self (Collins, 2000). The

following are examples:

Simmons journeyed through the ranks of elite higher education occurred during a

period when women and people of color were being integrated into mainstream society.

Because of this, Simmons was an African American and a woman, she was expected to

be the expert on diversity. However, Simmons resisted that role. She emphasized, “my

persistent abhorrence of permitting others to define my outlook and choices or the way I

169

express my identity generally prevent me from wanting to be an expert on the subject of a

concept as inchoate as diversity.”

As a woman Simmons soon discovered leading would be hard “because people

still find it difficult to be led by women” and because men are much more successful in

the academy. Very early in her career, Simmons wrestled with being so different and

“naturally marginalized always.” She quickly realized, “Wherever I went and whatever I

did, I would always have to justify myself. That was going to be my life. I was never

going to be able to escape it.”

Intersectionality. Simmons’ struggle against intersecting oppressions resembles

that of many African American women intellectuals. African American women have

attained advanced levels of education and occupy high-ranking position within academia

but many in administrative positions encounter social inequity from intersectionality

(Lloyd-Jones, 2011). From these struggles African American women intellectuals,

including Simmons, have created strategies that have allowed them to cope and transcend

the boundaries of intersecting oppressions including race, class, gender and sexuality

(Collins, 2000).

In order to examine Simmons’ methods of coping, surviving, resisting, and acting

to change systems of domination, we must return to Collins’ (2000) example of the

ongoing interplay that exists between Black women’s oppression and activism through

the life of Sojourner Truth. Truth crossed borders of race, class, gender, and geography

symbolic of Black women’s freedom struggles. She moved in and out of several worlds

while expanding her definition of freedom. Truth’s sojourning among multiple outsider-

170

within locations emphasized the importance of social settings in determining truth.

Simmons’ HerStory is one of a “sojourner” crossing racial, class, gender, geographical,

educational, and academic institutional borders. Simmons’ sojourning involved border

crossing and positive transformation of previously segregated spaces. While analyzing

Simmons’ HerStory, the question became how did Simmons sojourn across these

borders? I came to discover the possibility that Simmons was presenting the Other, her

public face, to sojourn across these borders, so not to reveal her entire or true self.

Presentation of other. Just as Truth deconstructed the term woman by using her

own lived experiences to challenge it (Collins, 2000), Simmons exhibited a similar

approach. Simmons deconstructed the terms African American and woman using her own

lived experiences thus, presenting the Other. Simmons presentation of Other reverberated

throughout HerStory. Simmons’ life was one of continuous negotiations in an attempt to

resolve the contradictions separating her self-defined image of self as an African

American woman with her objectification as Other. Through the presentation of Other,

Simmons was able to sojourn across racial, class, gender, geographical, educational, and

academic borders. Simmons presentation of Other was one others expected of her. For

example:

Simmons became aware that there were particular expectations of her as an

African American and as a woman. When Princeton needed someone to lead the race-

relations initiative, or become director of Afro-American studies Princeton approached

Simmons. She questioned: “Why are you asking me to do it? Just because I'm Black?”

Simmons field was French not race relations or Afro-American studies. Simmons also

171

asked the president of Princeton “Why are you asking me?” when he requested she join

the Staff Group.

Throughout Simmons’ career she frequently questioned “Why?” she was being

asked to lead certain projects or initiatives. Did Simmons’ question of “Why?” stem from

the uncertainty of the reason she was being asked to lead certain projects or initiatives?

Was Simmons being asked to lead certain projects or initiatives because of her race and

gender or because of the strength of her character, abilities or credentials? Was Simmons

questioning “Why?” her being defensive and if so, could Simmons have been defensive

because she was expected to present the Other?

This presentation of Other led to repetition in Simmons’ HerStory. This repetition

could be due to Simmons presenting the Other while interviewing. An example is when,

during my interview with her, Simmons directed me to the “public domain” when

questions regarding her personal life were presented for instance, when I asked, “What

are some of the important messages you received growing up that shaped your life

today?” Simmons replied, “That has been treated endlessly in articles” instead of her

answering the questions. By presenting the Other Simmons negated some of my goals for

this study. For example, Simmons’ HerStory lacked in-depth discussions about her

personal life, detailed accounts of her childhood, siblings, marriage, husband, children,

and her experiences during the Civil Rights Movement.

Holloway (1995) posited, “the realities to include an awareness of what our public

image might mean to others. This is not paranoia. It is preparedness” (p. 36). Simmons’

presentation of Other allowed her to protect herself by solely presenting and consistently

172

wearing a public face. The presentation of the Other permitted Simmons to not live a life

of opprobrium. Simmons’ presentation of the Other not only speaks to the various forms

of oppression Black women have been subjected to but also exemplifies how Black

women are not mere victims (Turner-Essel, 2013).

Throughout HerStory Simmons resisted allowing others to define who she was

because she was a woman and African American, “I wasn’t there to be the show minority

person. I’ve always made it clear that I don’t want to fall into stereotypical patterns. I

don’t want to fulfill people’s stereotypical notions.” Simmons ultimately decided to take

charge of her situation by accepting her differences and preparing for the struggles that

lay ahead: “I could let go of trying to prove myself to people because I would have an

extraordinary, extraordinarily difficult job to do with everybody that I met. So, I decided

to let go of that.” After making this decision, Simmons set out to leave a mark “for all the

people who are marginalized by fighting the very idea that people because they are

different are less.” Simmons started expressing her ideas about what institutions needed

to be doing, instead of focusing on what they were not doing. This approach became a

successful strategy for Simmons, who noted, “I wanted to give voice to that. That was

very important to me. So, I gradually found myself doing that.”

Activism, change agent, transformational leader. Similar to other Black

women throughout history, Simmons resisted various forms of oppression by refusing to

accept or comply or by attempting to prevent something through action and/or argument.

She actively struggled throughout HerStory to question, confront, resist, and change

173

prevailing structures of domination. Simmons’ efforts represent a direct stance against

oppression and a matter of everyday life and survival for her.

Simmons served as an agent of social change by taking a direct stance against

oppressive structures. As an agent of social change Simmons adopted an activist

approach by acknowledging oppressive structures existed, being consciousness of

oppressive structures, and empowering herself to fight against these oppressive

structures. For example, Simmons’ unpopular views about disparate pay for women and

minorities, sexual harassment, and exclusionary practices in universities, put her in the

category of troublemaker early in her career. People didn’t know what to do with her but

Simmons developed her own approach, by speaking out against injustices Simmons

noted,

I always believed that it was important for me to be unapologetically who I am.

So, if I’m in a meeting and they said something that was offensive to me, I often

said it was offensive to me. I always reacted as honestly as I could. If I saw

policies that were unfair, I tended to point that out.

Because of this and Simmons’ questioning, confronting, resisting, and changing

prevailing structures of domination I believe Simmons is an activist, change agent, and

transformational leader. Transformational leaders are change agents (Pennings, 2007 &

Chekwa, 2001) and can also be activists. Individuals can be activists by simply using

their individual power through small acts to build social connections (Martin, Hanson,

Fontaine & McChesney, 2007). A change agent is a person who initiates change (Burkey,

1993), while a transformational leader inspires others to achieve extraordinary outcomes

174

and develop their own leadership capacity (Bass & Riggio, 2008). Simmons’ HerStory is

one of sojourning across boundaries. Through her small acts—including actively seeking

opportunities for change and empowering herself, others and her environment, Simmons

exemplifies the characteristics of a change agent, activist, and transformational leader.

Empowerment. Empowerment is the first step toward social change. According

to Few, Stephens and Rouse-Arnett (2003), empowering women requires a

contextualized understanding of power in three dimensions: personal, interpersonal, and

political. These three dimensions offer a set of standards recognizing the connection

between experience and consciousness that shaped Simmons’ everyday life and often

pervaded the work she did (Collins, 2000).

Another method of coping, surviving, resisting, and acting to change systems of

domination was how Simmons’ utilized empowerment. I applied Few, Stephens and

Rouse-Arnett’s (2003) three dimensions of power that empower women to further

examine:

• Personal power (i.e., experiencing oneself as an agent of change with the personal

ability to effect change);

• Interpersonal power (i.e., influencing others through social location, interpersonal

skills, or credibility); and

• Political power (i.e., effectively using both formal and informal means to allocate

resources in an organization or community).

I conceptualized these dimensions as themes by analyzing Simmons' personal

archives (speeches, articles, and reports) and my interview with her. These themes

175

describe the ways in which others empowered Simmons and how Simmons empowered

herself, others, and society along her journey to college presidency.

Personal power. Various individuals empowered Simmons. Her mother, who

meticulously ironed clothes and insisted that her daughter do the very best job she could,

directly influenced Simmons’ leadership style as a president. Others included Ida Mae

Henderson, Simmons’ first-year teacher at Grapeland’s W. R. Banks School, and Vernell

Lillie, Simmons’ high school drama teacher whose relationship with Simmons went

beyond a teacher’s average school day, curriculum, and guidelines. These individuals

empowered Simmons to see herself as a person with the ability to effect change.

Simmons was also shaped by her experiences growing up in a male-dominant

household where women did not have their own voice. Being raised in a pernicious

system that attempted to prevent her from succeeding and that told her she should not

aspire to anything was another defining life experience. Other transformative experiences

included the following:

• Receiving an education that empowered her

• Protesting chapel at Dillard

• Studying abroad in Mexico and France and seeing the challenges other countries

faced

• Attending Wellesley, which transformed her and helped her identify and develop

her intellectual capacity

176

Interpersonal power. Simmons empowered others by encouraging poor parents

that they could be just as good at parenting as the wealthiest parents; championing for

children’s right to an education; and reaffirming the importance of empowering women.

She emphasized the necessity for strong leaders, the importance of being

unapologetically oneself, and the urgent need to speak out against group victimization.

Simmons is well known for being “famously demanding.” This reputation influenced

those who worked for her. For example, her dean of the college at Brown became

president of Connecticut College (Katherine Bergeron), her provost at Brown became

president of the University of Michigan (Mark Schlissel), and her first provost of Brown

became president of the University of Chicago (Robert J. Zimmer). These individuals

gained recognition because they worked for the “famously demanding Ruth.”

Political power. As an institutional leader, Simmons empowered institutions.

At Princeton, Simmons developed the African-American studies program

recruiting renowned scholars. She made hiring women in math or physics, and

engineering a high priority. She also wrote The Simmons Report, which guided

Princeton’s race relations.

At Smith, Simmons went into the inner city to recruit. In addition, she created the

Medians Journal, a scholarly journal focusing on women of color, and started a finance

program to address the lack of women in the field. Simmons also developed Praxis, a

program allowing every Smith student to select a college-funded internship. Finally, she

began the first undergraduate engineering program at a women’s college and one of very

few in liberal arts colleges.

177

At Brown, Simmons launched the Plan for Academic Enrichment to secure more

faculty, more and better facilities for faculty and students, a bigger medical school, and

an expanded graduate school. Despite the 2008 economic collapse, during which Brown

lost $800 million in endowments, she raised a total of $1.61 billion. Simmons introduced

the Slavery Justice Center after publishing the Slavery Justice Report, which explored

Brown’s ties to slavery.

Even in the face of adversity Simmons overcame. For example, in 2001 she took

the reins of Brown in the midst of various forms of turmoil: Gordon Gee resigning the

previous year after the shortest presidency in Brown’s history; the terrorist attacks of

September 11, 2001; David Horowitz publishing an ad suggesting slavery would still

exist if it were it not for the transatlantic slaver trade; and, the Brown community harshly

criticized Simmons for occupying a seat on the Goldman Sachs’ board.

Simmons took a direct stance against oppressive structures. She did not want to be

chosen for a presidency because of her race or gender, instead Simmons wanted to

contribute to society. She challenged Smith’s readiness to have an African American

president and Brown’s readiness to have an African American and woman president.

However, Simmons’ influence spanned beyond higher education and into society. During

her career, Simmons fought against typecasting, marginalization, stereotyping, elitism in

higher education, and the silencing of others. She advocated for equal pay, diversity, free

speech, transparency, and education for everyone.

178

Summary

Simmons’ HerStory is one of empowerment and encompasses personal,

interpersonal and political power. HerStory is also one of a “sojourner” crossing racial,

class, gender, geographical, educational, and academic institutional borders. Simmons’

sojourning involved border crossing and positive transformation of previously segregated

spaces. Simmons had ongoing struggles created by the intersection of her identities of

being both African American and a woman, which made Simmons’ life one of

continuous negotiations attempting to resolve the contradictions separating her self-

defined image of self as an African American woman with her objectification as Other.

Throughout Simmons career she questioned “Why?” she was being asked to lead certain

projects or initiatives. This method of coping, surviving, resisting, and acting to change

systems of domination led to Simmons presentation of Other. By presenting the Other,

Simmons also negated some of the potential of this study. HerStory lacked in-depth

discussions about her personal life and created repetition in Simmons’ HerStory. Yet

HerStory revealed itself through her small acts—including actively seeking opportunities

for change and empowering herself, others and her environment. In these ways, Simmons

exemplified the characteristics of a change agent, activist, and transformational leader.

179

Final Thoughts

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are what you can rise from,

how you can still come out of it.

-Maya Angelou

In the abstract, Simmons’ journey to the presidency was noble, heroic, and one of

a champion. In reality, her journey was one of survival; struggle; and according to

Simmons, coincidence. Not setting out to be a college president, Simmons considers

doing so no more than a convergence of an accident of history, and a coincidence that she

happened to be born and grow up at a time that gave her the chance to be the first African

American president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of Brown

University. She does not see herself as having broken through a glass ceiling or having

been a pioneer. Her journey to the presidency began with mentoring by “very humble,

unsophisticated” people (her parents and teachers). Later as an administrator, Simmons

found mentors who guided her.

Simmons’ HerStory of crossing racial, class, gender, geographical, educational,

and academic borders is one of a sojourner. Through small acts, she transformed social

relations in ways that have promoted change within not only the institutions where she

has worked and led but also society as a whole. A change agent, activist, and

transformational leader, Simmons actively sought opportunities for change to grow and

innovate as well as improve herself, others and her environment. Perspective though the

lens of Black feminism while applying Few, Stephens and Rouse-Arnett’s (2003) three

dimensions of power has shown the ways in which others empowered Simmons, and how

180

Simmons empowered herself, others, and her environment along her journey to college

presidency.

The juxtaposition of Chapter 4 with Chapters 5 reveals differences in Simmons’

HerStory from her childhood to becoming the first African American president of an Ivy

League school. Simmons’ HerStory as told by others reveals one narrative, while

Simmons’ words reveal another, a reframing. Simmons’ HerStory offers unique insight

into how she journeyed to the presidency of an Ivy League institution and what shaped

her development. Documenting and sharing these experiences allowed for questions to be

asked and addressed regarding what is hindering African American women from

pursuing the presidency of higher education institutions.

This study examining an African American female president’s experiences at a

four-year PWI was needed because despite rich HerStories in higher education, they

remain absent from educational literature (Stroud, 2009; Wolfe, 2010; Zamani, 2003).

Thus, other African American women’s “powerful and poetic voices” (Marable, 1998, p.

viii) must not continue to be ignored or underestimated. This research is important

because it represents a discourse and a perspective that have historically been silenced,

dismissed, and ignored.

Epilogue: My Journey

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

-Maya Angelou

Pursuing my dissertation has been a mental and emotional journey, but gaining

access to such a prestigious professional as Dr. Simmons took that journey to an entirely

181

different level. In the very beginning of this study, I did not consider the possibility, let

alone the difficulties, of getting an interview with her. Realizing she was a prominent

person, I nevertheless mustered the courage to email her; and she responded, agreeing to

participate. After initially agreeing, Simmons later contacted me to withdraw from the

study. However, when I immediately responded, emphasizing the importance of sharing

HerStory, she agreed once again to participate. Although I did not expect her to be

completely at my disposal, I did hope to conduct a second interview with her.

Unfortunately, a second interview did not follow.

I am deeply appreciative of Simmons’ affording me the opportunity to share

HerStory. To my knowledge, Simmons has been invited to participate in one other study,

another dissertation; however, Simmons declined.

Interview. The following are some of my thoughts while interviewing Simmons.

I was extremely nervous and concerned about timing, especially since I only had 30

minutes for the interview, (see Appendix G). When Simmons called, however, she was

very welcoming and caring and asked me about my dissertation deadlines to make sure I

had ample time to meet them.

Simmons is very busy. While visiting Brown, I observed her assistant Helen

scheduling and making arrangements for Simmons’ various appointments, meetings, and

events. Simmons shared that her busyness is the “byproduct of doing [her] career for a

longtime.” She added, “You know a lot of people, and things don’t go away once you

step down; so I’m finding that I’m as busy as I want to be.”

182

Before answering questions, Simmons wanted to gain a sense of what I was

looking for and informed me that many of my questions were covered in the public

domain and encouraged me to conduct a “general search” for sources to quote. (At this

point in the research process, I had reviewed Simmons’ personal archives and had already

begun a general search online.) Simmons emphasized that information in her personal

archives was not in the public domain.

Simmons also referred me to several different sources to review. One was an

article in The New Yorker, which Simmons said contained many “inaccuracies.” Curious

about those “inaccuracies,” I retrieved the article, along with the other sources she had

suggested. Simmons also emphasized the need to know the difference between what

people write in public venues (i.e., how a public person is treated in the public domain)

and what is actually true. She did not think I could really understand her presidency

unless I took “the time to go through all of that kind of material.”

Once we started addressing the interview questions, I commented on how many

people might assume that because of Simmons’ presidencies her college education was

bestowed on or expected of her. She responded, “Not in the least, quite the contrary.”

Then I shared my own family’s educational history, how I was the only one to graduate

high school and college, and my hope that my nieces and nephew will aspire for

something more because of my education. I also emphasized the generational difference

between HerStory and mine.

At one point in the interview, I allowed Simmons to lead the conversation to

make her comfortable while conversing and answering questions. Since I only had

183

initially allotted 30 minutes for the interview, I hoped that with Simmons’ leading, time

would not be a factor. This approach seemed to work to my advantage considering the

interview lasted 90-minutes.

When discussing leadership, Simmons encouraged me to decide for myself what

her leadership style was after reviewing the data. She said that her view of her leadership

is primarily characterized by what people see as her values. I told her I liked the fact that

she noted others speaking highly of her character. I also shared with her what Helen, her

assistant, told me about returning to work for Simmons, a gesture which says much about

Simmons.

Because becoming a college president was not her plan, one of the toughest

questions for Simmons to answer was what influenced her decision to become one. When

asked about the career path she took to become president, she laughed as she commented,

“I continued to make personal choices, and they’ve worked out for me.”

Simmons also laughed as she discussed her mother ironing, the way she “paid

such attention to these clothes that were brought to her by people who had no respect for

her,” and that her mother “gave careful attention to what she did and insisted on doing it

well.” She then mentioned she had just returned from giving a keynote address at the

installation of Katherine Bergeron, who was her dean of college at Brown and who had

become president of Connecticut College. In a Connecticut Magazine article, Bergeron

was quoted as saying she worked for the “famously demanding Ruth Simmons.”

Simmons then elaborated on Bergeron’s description of her. I believe that as she was

describing her mother’s attention to detail while ironing, she realized that her work ethic

184

was similar to her mother’s, explaining how Simmons came to be known as “famously

demanding.” I think this was an “ah-ha” moment for Simmons.

After the interview as I reflected on my notes and data, I began wondering why

during the interview Simmons frequently repeated “I tell the story,” leading me to

consider the possibility of her having created a mental script by repeatedly sharing the

same stories/memories. I was also puzzled by Simmons’ encouraging me to search for

sources to “quote” from that have been quoted and referred to widely in the public

domain. This dissertation, based on qualitative research, is not about just quoting sources

that are readily available or that have been exhaustively used, although those sources

were important and relevant. This work is more than simply weaving together pre-

existing stories and information. It represents the discovery of a story that had not been

told. Using the data, to guide me, I was able to reveal Dr. Simmons’ HerStory.

“To thine own self be true.” Being an African American woman pursuing a

doctorate has presented moments that have challenged me to be true to who I am as both

an African American and a woman. This dissertation stemmed from such a moment. One

of my professors during my doctoral studies wrote the following comment on my

response to an assignment about the lack of African American women presidents at four-

year PWIs:

Certainly the diversity of executive-level appointments in higher education is a

relevant leadership and governance theme. As you note, we have some hard realities

facing us, given the age profile of sitting presidents. I am encouraged that we are making

185

some progress in enhancing diversity; but as you note, we are not close to the end of the

story.

It is an unfortunate and contradictory part of heritage that we are a nation created

to celebrate the dignity and promise of every man and woman in our democracy, but

managed to keep women and African Americans in confined and often subservient roles

for too many years. The encouraging news for our democracy is that this is changing. It

has, however, taken important sacrifice on the part of women and African Americans to

forge these “new pathways” in most every part of our society. Look, however, at the new

roles (combat pilots) and new executive levels that are now being occupied. When Colin

Powell became Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army and Hilary Clinton and Condoleezza

Rice became Secretaries of State, one might believe that something good for diversity is

happening, to say nothing of our current President Barack Obama.

My thoughts about and response to this comment birthed this dissertation, and I

am thankful that my professor challenged me in such a profound way. However, because

of Simmons I came to the realization that this professor was the type of mentor I needed.

During our phone interview, Simmons noted:

I would say to my students if you are around somebody who is constantly praising you get as far away from them as you can because you never need that in a mentor. What you need in a mentor is someone who tells you what you actually need to do to improve. It’s very hard to find a mentor who does that because most mentors don’t want to give you bad news. So, they move people along from experience-to-experience never telling them what they actually need to know. I tried to be a mentor to people by telling them what they need to know. I came to appreciate this professor’s perspective, even though my view on this

topic differs. Progress is being made in enhancing diversity but there is a lot of work that

186

still needs to be done. I will close with a statement made by Nicole Price, Chief Diversity

Officer, of Suffolk University (Boston, MA):

Many say that the country has entered a post-racial era: We have a Black

president Barack Obama; we have had Black CEOs – Kenneth Chenault and Ursula

Burns; we have Black university presidents – Ruth Simmons, Lee Pelton, Shirley Ann

Jackson; we have had Black secretaries of states – Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice.

There have been and there currently is a Black Supreme Court Justice –Thurgood

Marshall in the past and Clarence Thomas today – as well as Black judges at every level

of the judicial system – O. Rogeriee Thompson, Michael Bolden, Joyce London

Alexander. We have Black millionaires – Janice Bryant Howroyd, Quinton Primo III,

Robert Johnson – and even one Black billionaire – Oprah Winfrey. Therefore, some think

… that Black people are equal and there’s certainly equity, access and opportunities for

advancement, education and employment. But … are people treated equally, and is there

equity? As a nation we have made great strides towards being guided by equity and less

so by prejudice, but we have not become a nation guided by truth and reason. It appears

that the more advanced we have become, the more we let prejudice and stereotypes guide

our thoughts and decisions… While all the above-mentioned Black Americans

accomplishments are real, these are not the images we see every day, or even every week,

and thus they are seen as anomalies or as history – the past.

187

References

188

Alfred, M. V. (2001). Expanding theories of career development: Adding the voices of

African-American women in the white academy. Adult Education Quarterly,

51(2), 108-127.

Alfred, M. V. (2001). Success in the ivory tower: Lessons from Black tenured female

faculty at a major research university. In R. O. Mabokela & A. L. Green (Eds.),

Sisters of the academy: Emergent Black women scholars in higher education

(pp. 57-80). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

American Council on Education. (2012). The American college presidency 2012.

Washington, D.C.

Allen, K. R. (2000). A conscious and inclusive family studies. Journal of Marriage and

the Family, 62, 4-17.

Alston, J.A., & P.A. McClellan. 2011. Herstories: Leading with the lessons of the lives of

Black women activists. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Angelou, M. (2007). French by design. Available from

http://frenchbydesignblog.com/2014/07/quote-feminist-maya-angelou.html.

Aguirre, Jr. A. (2000). Women and minority faculty in the academic workplace:

Recruitment, retention, and academic culture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Bailey, K. M. (2010). The hidden leaves of the baobab tree: Lived experiences of African

American female chief academic officers. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from

http://utexas.summon.serialssolutions.com/link/0/eLvHCXMwQ4wAwMqDxPR0

I8LFgam5uaUusLICdSFDXM3dwsxcfC28kcp6N1EGOTfXEGcPXViZGZ-

SkxNvZAy-ZwWo0ZBvl-2GqDdLHL_MyP9R5DF7-X4AWW8rvA.

189

Bass, B., & Riggio, R. (2008). Transformational leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Baumgartner, J., & Richards, A. (2000). Manifesta: Young women, feminism, and the

future. New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

Beckham, B. (2001, March/April), Precedent-setting president. Crisis Magazine, 108, 22-

25.

Bell-Scott, P. (1994). Black women writing lives: An introduction. In P. Bell-Scott (Ed.),

Life notes: Personal writings by contemporary Black women (pp. 17-26). New

York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Bell, E., & Nkomo, S. (2001). Our separate ways: Black and white women and the

struggle for professional identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School

Press.

Benjamin, L. (1997) Black women and the academy: Promises and perils. Gainesville:

University Press of Florida.

Benjamin, P. (1997). The case for affirmative action. The Black World Today, 111.

Retrieved from http://www.tbwt.com.

Bennet College. (2002). About Bennett: Bennett College history. Retrieved from

http://www.bennett.edu.

Bethune-Cookman College. (2002). Our history. Retrieved from

http://www.bethune.cookman.edu/.

Bogdan, R. & Biklen, S. (2007). Qualitative research of education: An introduction to

theories and methods (5th Ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.

190

Borg, L. (2007, May 9). Brown president’s gift figures to help Providence math students.

The Providence Journal. Retrieved from

http://www.projo.com/news/content/Hope_simmons9_05-09-

07_815IGQU.343bf2c.html.

Brody, J. E. (2007, December 11). Mental reserves keep brain agile. The New York

Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Brown, C. (2001). Patterns of leadership: The impact of female authority in four

women’s colleges, 1880-1910. In J. Nidiffer & C. Bashaw (Eds.), Women

administrators in higher education (pp. 37-65). Albany: State University of New

York Press.

Brown University (2013). Retrieved from http://www.brown.edu.

Bruner, J. (1987). Life as narrative. Social Research, 54, 11-32.

Burkey, S. (1993). People first: A guide to self-reliant participatory rural development.

New York, NY: Zed Books.

Cain, L.D. (2015). Barriers encountered by African American women executives.

Walden University, ScholarWorks. Retrieved

fromhttp://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/571/

Carter, M. (2003). Telling tales out of school: “What’s the fate of a Black story in a white

world of white stories?” In G. López & L. Parker (Eds.), Interrogative racism in

qualitative research methodology (pp. 28-48). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Carter, D., Pearson, C., & Shavlik, D. (Fall 1987/Winter 1988). Double jeopardy:

Women of color in higher education. Educational Record, 68(4), 98-103.

191

Castetter, W., & Heisler, R. (1977). Developing and defending a dissertation proposal.

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Chekwa, E. (2001). Searching for African American Transformational Leaders.

Proceedings from Academy of Business & Administrative Science’s Fourth

International Conference: Quebec City, CA.

Cheng, T., & Shaw (2011, May 25). What do the top liberal colleges have in common

with Goldman Sachs? HuffingtonPost. Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donny-shaw/what-do-the-top-liberal-

c_b_420635.html.

Chenoweth, K. (2007). Powerful sisters—college presidents—cover story.

Retrieved December 14, 2013, from http://diverseeducation.com

Chliwniak, L. (1997). Higher Education Leadership: Analyzing the gender gap. ASHE

ERIC Higher Education Report, 25(4). Washington DC: The George Washington

University Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry (1st ed.). San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc. Publishers.

Clandinin, D.J. (2007). Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Clarke, C. (1995, October). A new face in the ivory tower. Black Enterprise, 120-22,

126-28.

Clayton, M. (2000). From society's margins to helm of Brown U. The Christian Science

Monitor. Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/1121/p17s1.html.

192

Collins, P. (1990). African American feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and

the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.

Collins, P. (1991). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of

empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.

Collins, P. (1998). Fighting words: Black women and the search for justice. Minneapolis:

University of Minnesota Press.

Collins, P. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of

empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.

Cook, A., & Glass, C. (2014). Women and top leadership positions: Towards an

institutional analysis. Gender, Work, & Organization, 21, 91-103.

doi:10.1111/gwao.12018

Crace, J. (2006). Ruth Simmons: The visible woman. The Guardian. Retrieved from

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/oct/03/highereducationprofile.intern

ationaleducationnews.

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist

critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics.

University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, 139–67.

Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five

traditions , Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods

approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods

193

approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Daniel, E. (1997) African American nursing administrators in the academy: Breaking the

glass ceiling. In L. Benjamin (Ed.), Black women and the academy: Promises and

perils (168-178). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Davis, A. (1981). Women, race and class. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Dealbook (2010, March 2). At Brown, spotlight on the president’s role at a bank. New

York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/at-brown-

spotlight-on-the-presidents-role-at-a-bank/?_r=1.

Denzin, N. (1989). Lincoln, Y. (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative research Theorizing

African American women's leadership in predominantly white institutions of

higher education (2nd ed.). London, UK: Sage Publications, Inc.

Eckel, P., Cook, B., & King, J. (2009). The CAO census: A national profile of chief

academic officers. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education.

Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography.

Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Famous Firsts by American Women, 1901-Present. (2007). Retrieved from

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womensfirsts2.html.

Farmer, R. (1993). Place but not importance: The race for inclusion in academe. In J.

James & R. Farmer (Eds.), Spirit, space & survival: African-American women in

(white) academe (pp. 196-217). New York, NY: Routledge, Inc.

Few, L. Stephens, D., & Rouse-Arnett, M. (2003). Sister talk: Transcending boundaries

and challenges in qualitative research with Black women. Family Relations,

194

52(3), 205-215.

Flick, U. (1998). An introduction to qualitative research. London, UK: Sage.

Flowers, A. (2003). Investigating the representation of African American student affairs

administrators: A preliminary study. NSASAP Journal, 6(1), 37-46.

Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punishment: The birth of the prison. New York, NY:

Random House.

Fontaine, D., & Greenlee, S. (1993). Black women: Double solos in the workplace. The

Western Journal of Black Studies, 17(3), 121-125.

Giddings, P. (1984). When and where I enter: The impact of Black women on race and

sex in America. New York, NY: William Morrow.

Glesne, C. (2006). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (3rd ed.). Boston,

MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Gorena, M. (1996, April). Hispanic women in higher education administration: Factors

that positively influence or hinder advancement to leadership positions. Paper

presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research

Association, New York, NY.

Green, S. (1997). Rites of passage and rights of way: A woman administrator's

experiences. In L. Benjamin (Ed.), Black women in the academy: Promises and

perils (pp. 147-157). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Gregory, T. (1995). Black women in the academy: The secrets to success and

achievement. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America.

195

Gregory, T. (1999). Black women in academe: Progress but no parity. Advancing Women

in Leadership, 2(1). Retrieved from http://awljournal.org/winter99/gregory.html

Gregory, T. (2001). Black faculty women in the academy: History, status, and future.

E- Journal of The Journal of Negro Education, 70 (3), 124-138. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3211205

Harris, S., Wright, S., & Msengi, C., (2011). African American females’ career paths to

the presidency: Navigating the glass ceiling challenge. Wagon Lane, UK:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Harrow, A. (1993). Power and politics: The leadership challenge. In P. T. Mitchell (Ed.),

Cracking the wall: Women in higher education administration (pp. 42-158).

Washington, DC: The College and University Personnel Association.

Harvey, W. (1999). Grass roots and glass ceilings: African American administrators in

predominately white colleges and universities. Albany: State University of New

York Press.

Havelock, R. (1973). The change agent's guide to innovation in education. Englewood

Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Hawkins, B. (2007). Being presidential in Dixie – African-Americans as presidents at

traditionally white colleges. Retrieved from

http://diverseeducation.com/article/7459/.

Heikkinen, H. (2002). Whatever is narrative research? In R. Huttunen, H. Heikkinen, &

L. Syrjälä (Eds.), Narrative research: Voices from teachers and philosophers (pp.

13-25). Jyväskylä, Finland: SoPhi.

196

History.com (2009). June 10, 1963: JFK has busy day, Retrieved August 6, 2015, from

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jfk-has-busy-day

Hoke, B. (1997). Women's colleges: The intersection of race, class and gender. In L.

Benjamin (Ed.), Black women in the academy: Promises and perils (pp. 291-301).

Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Holmes, S. L., Land, L. D., & Hinton-Huston, V. D. (2007). Race still matters:

Considerations for mentoring Black women in academe. The Negro Educational

Review, 58(1/2), 105-129.

Holloway, K. (1990). Revision and (Re)membrance: A Theory of Literary Structures in

Literature by African-American Women Writers, Black American Literature

Forum, Women Writers Issue, 24(4) 617-631.

Honan, W. (December 16, 1994), Smith College makes history in naming its next

president. New York Times. Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/16/us/smith-college-makes-history-in-naming-

its-next-president.html.

hooks, b. (1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism. Boston, MA: South End

Press.

hooks, b. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking Black. Toronto, CA: Between

the Lines.

hooks, b. (1984). Feminist theory: Margin to center. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston, MA: South End

Press.

197

hooks, b. (1992). Black looks: Race and representation. Boston, MA: South End Press.

hooks, b. (1995). Killing rage: Ending racism. New York, NY: Owl Books.

hooks, b. (1997). Cultural criticism & transformation. Northampton, MA: Media

Education Foundation.

hooks, b. (1998). Engaged pedagogy: A transgressive education for critical

consciousness. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.

hooks, b. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. New York, NY: Routledge.

hooks, b. & West, C. (1991). Breaking bread. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Hopkins, P. (2007). Positionalities and knowledge: Negotiating ethics in practice. ACME:

An International e-Journal for Critical Geographies, 386-394. Retrieved from

http://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/viewFile/787/646

Houston, M. (2004). Multiple perspectives: African American women conceive their talk.

In R. Jackson (Ed.), African American communication and identities: Essential

readings (pp. 157-164). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Howard-Hamilton, M. (2003). Theoretical frameworks for African American women.

New Directions for Student Services, 104, 19-27. doi: 10.1002/ss.104.

Hull, G., Bell-Scott, P., & Smith, B. (1982). All the women are white, all the Blacks are

men, but some of us are brave. New York, NY: The Feminist Press.

Hurtado, A. (1996). Strategic suspensions feminists of color theorize the production of

knowledge. In Goldberger, N., Tarule, J., Clinchy, B., & Belenky, M. (Eds.),

Knowledge, difference, and power (pp. 372-392), New York, NY: Basic Books.

Introcaso, C. (2001). Determination in leadership: Pioneering Roman Catholic women

198

presidents. In J. Nidiffer & C. T. Bashaw (Eds.), Women administrators in higher

education: Historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. 67-83). Albany: State

University of New York Press.

Jackson, J. F. L. (2004). Engaging, retaining, and advancing African American in

executive postsecondary education. Journal of Negro Education, 73(1), 4-20.

James, J. (1999). Resting in gardens, battling in deserts: Black women’s activism. The

Black Scholar, 29(4), 2-7.

James, J., & Farmer, R. (Eds.). (1993). Spirit, space & survival: African-American

women in (white) academe. New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Inc.

Jayakumar, U., Howard, T.C., Allen, W.R., & Han, J.C. (2009). Racial privilege in the

professoriate: An exploration of campus climate, retention, and satisfaction. The

Journal of Higher Education, 80(5), 538-563. doi: 10.1353/jhe.0.0063

Jean-Marie, G. (2011). Unfinished ’agendas: Trends in women of color’s status in higher

education. Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent Past, Promising

Future: Turbulent Past, Promising Future, 9, 1.

Jeffries, R., & Generett, G. (2003). Black women as qualitative researchers. In Jefferies,

R. & Generett, G. (Eds.), Black women in the field: Experiences understanding

ourselves and others through qualitative research. (p.1-10). Cresskill, NJ:

Hampton Press.

Kantrowitz, B. (2001). Ruth Simmons. Newsweek. Retrieved from

http://www.newsweek.com/ruth-simmons-148261.

Kawewe, M. (1997). The dynamics of patriarchal meritocracy in the academy: A case

199

study. In L. Benjamin (Ed.), Black women in the academy: Promises and perils

(pp. 246-251). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Kim, Y., & Cook, B. (2013). On the pathway to the presidency: Characteristics of higher

education’s senior leadership. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

King, K. (1990). Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of Black

feminist ideology. In M. Malson, E. Boyi, J. F. O'Barr, & M. Wyer (Eds.), Black

women in America: Social science perspectives (pp. 42-72). Chicago, IL: The

University of Chicago Press.

King, J., & Gomez, G. (2007). On the pathway to the presidency: Characteristics of

higher education’s senior leadership. Washington, DC: American Council on

Education.

King, J., & Gigi, G. (2008). On the pathway to the presidency: Characteristics of higher

education’s senior leadership. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

Kingsbury, A. (2007). More proof that mentors matter. US News. Retrieved from

http://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders/articles/2007/11/12/ruth-j-simmons.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2002). The leadership challenge (3rd Ed.). San Francisco, CA:

Jossey Bass.

Kramp, M. (2004). Exploring life and experience through narrative inquiry. In K.

DeMarrais & S. Lapan (Eds.), Foundations for research: Methods of inquiry in

education and the social sciences (pp. 103-122). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates, Publishers.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1997). For colored girls who have considered suicide when the

200

rainbow is enough: Reflections of an African American woman scholar. In A.

Neumann & P. Peterson (Eds.), Learning from our lives: Women, research, and

autobiography in education (pp.52-70). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Leatherwood, L., & Williams, M. (2008). Gender and career paths. Journal of Women in

Educational Leadership, 6(4), 261-273.

Leonord, K. (2006). Fettered genius: The African American bardic poet from slavery to

civil rights. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Lesinski, J., & Minderovic, C. (2003). Simmons, Ruth J. 1945–. Contemporary Black

Biography. Retrieved from Encyclopedia.com:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2874000064.html+

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (2005). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and

emerging confluences. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of

qualitative research (pp. 191-216). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lindsay, B. (1980). Comparative perspectives of third world women: The impact of race,

sex, and class. New York, NY: Praeger.

Lindsay, B. (1997). Surviving the middle passage: The absent legacy of African

American women education deans, In L.A. Castenell & J.M. Tarule (Eds.), The

minority voice in educational reform: An analysis by minority and women college

of education deans (pp. 3-31). Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Lindsay, B. (1999). Women chief executives and their approaches towards equity in

American universities. Comparative Education, 35(2), 187-199.

Lloyd-Jones, B. (2011). Examining the “present” status of women of color in higher

201

education. In G. Jean-Marie & B. Lloyd-Jones (Eds.), Women of color: Turbulent

past, promising future, Vol. 9. (pp.xxi-xxvii). Diversity in Higher Education

Series. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Group.

Locke, E. (1997). Striking the delicate balances: The future of African-American women

in the academy. In L. Benjamin (Ed.), Black women in the academy: Promises

and perils (pp. 340-346). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider. Trumansberg, NY: Crossing Press.

Madison, S. D. (2005) Critical ethnography: Method, ethics, and performance. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Madsen, S. (2012). Women and leadership in higher education: Current realities,

challenges, and future directions. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 14,

131-139. doi:10.1177/1522311436299

Malveaux, J. (2013, March). Still slipping: African American women in the economy and

in society. Review of Black Political Economy, 40, 13-21. doi: 10.1007/s12114-

013-9167-5.

Marable, M. (1998). Black leadership: Four great American leaders and the struggle for

civil rights. New York, NY: Penguin.

Martin, D., Hanson, S., & Fontaine, D. (2007). What counts as activism? The role of

individuals in creating change. Women’s Studies Quarterly 34(3 & 4): 78-94.

Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San

202

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Miller-Bernal, L. (2004). Coeducation: An uneven progression. In L. Miller-Bernal & S.

L.

Poulson (Eds.), Going coed: Women’s experiences in formerly men’s colleges and

universities, 1950-2000 (pp. 3-21). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.

Mitchell, J. (1995). A bell tale. Black Issues in Higher Education, 11(23), 9–12.

Moen, T. (2006). Reflections on the narrative research approach. International Journal of

Qualitative Methods 5(4): 56–69.

Moore, W., & Wagstaff, L. H. (1974). Black educators in white colleges. San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass.

Moses, T. (1997). Black women in academe: Issues and strategies. In L. Benjamin (Ed.),

Black women in the academy: Promises and perils (pp. 23-37). Gainesville:

University Press of Florida.

Moses T. (2009). Advice from the field: Guiding women of color to academic leadership.

In D. R. Dean, S. J. Bracken, & J. K. Allen (Eds.), Women in academic

leadership: Professional strategies. (pp. 181-207). Sterling, VA: Stylus

Publishing, LLC.

Mosley, M. H. (1980). Black women administrators in higher education: An endangered

species. Journal of Black Studies, 10(3), 295-310.

Mullen, A. (2009). Challenges and breakthroughs of female department chairs across

disciplines in higher education. Advancing Women in Leadership, 29(9) 1-33.

My Hero Project (2010). Teacher hero: Ruth Simmons. Retrieved from

203

http://myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=r_simmons

Myers, W. (2002). A broken silence: Voices of African-American women in the academy.

Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.

Myers, J., Newman, J., Dunn, S., & Zweifler, S. (2013). The look of leadership in the Ivy

League. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Look-of-Leadership-in-the/139615/.

National Partnership for Women and Families. Retrieved February 1, 2014 from

http://www.nationalpartnership.org/issues/fairness/fair-pay.html

Newman, J., (2014). There is a gender pay gap in academe, but it may not be the gap that

matters. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from

http://chronicle.com/blogs/data/2014/04/11/there-is-a-gender-pay-gap-in-

academe-but-it-may-not-be-the-gap-that-matters/.

Newman, J., & O’Leary, B. (2013). Executive compensation at private colleges, 2011.

Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from

http://chronicle.com/article/Executive-Compensation-at/143541/#id=table.

Newman, J., & O’Leary, B. (2013). Executive compensation at public colleges, 2012

Fiscal Year. Chronicle of higher education. Retrieved from

http://chronicle.com.proxy.lib.utk.edu:90/article/Executive-Compensation

at/139093#id=table.

Nicolas, J. C., & Tanksley, C. B. (2004). Revelations of African American women with

terminal degrees: Overcoming obstacles to success. The Negro Educational

Review, 55(4), 175-185.

204

Northhouse, P. (2007). Leadership theory and practice (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage.

Olian, C. (Producer). (2001, March 4). 60 minutes [Television series]. New York, NY:

CBS News.

Olson, L. (2001). Freedom’s daughter: The unsung heroines of the civil rights movement

from1830 to 1970. New York, NY: Touchstone.

Patton, M. Q. (1987). How to use qualitative methods in evaluation. Newbury Park, CA:

Sage.

Paulus, L., & Dempster, P. (2013). Digital tools for qualitative research. London, UK:

Sage.

Pennings, R. (2007). Transformational leadership: How do we get there? Paper presented

at Leadership Conference, Maricopa Community College, Phoenix, AZ. Retrieved

from http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/community/chair /conference

/2007/papers/transformational_leadership.pdf.

Phillip, M. (1995). A campus of her own: Ruth Simmons takes the helm at Smith. Black

Issues in Higher Education, 11(23) 9.

Picker, L. (1996, April 21). Lessons from some of America’s most successful women,

Parade Magazine, 4–5.

Pinderhughes, E. (1989). Understanding race, ethnicity, and power: The key to efficacy

in clinical practice. New York, NY: Free Press.

Popova, M. (2010, October 6). Macolm Gladwell is wrong. Change Observer. Retrieved

from http://changeobserver.desinobserver.com/feature/malcolmgladwell-is-

205

wrong/19008.

Poses, R., (2010, February 15). A university president, but no longer a Goldman Sachs

director. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from

http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/02/university-president-but-no-longer.html.

Princeton University. (2013). Report of the trustee ad hoc committee on diversity.

Princeton, NJ: Eisgruber.

Ramey, H. (1995). Obstacles faced by African-American women administrators in higher

education: How they cope. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 19(2), 113-119.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2012). Retrieved from

http://www.rpi.edu/president/index.html.

Rhett-Rocque, S. (2013). #Our moments Ruth Simmons becomes the first African

American president of an Ivy League university. Retrieved from

http://mymajicdc.com/3144528/ourmoments-ruth-simmons-becomes-the-first-

african-american-president-of-an-ivy-league-university/.

Robinson, F. (1996). Preparing African American women for the community college

presidency: Implications for adult continuing education (Unpublished doctoral

dissertation). DeKalb: Northern Illinois University.

Robinson, K. A. (2012). Institutional factors contributing to the under-representation of

African American women in higher education: Perceptions of women in

leadership positions. (Doctoral dissertation) Retrieved from Electronic Theses &

Dissertations. Paper 811.

Rossi, P., Freeman, H., & Lipsey, M. (1999). Evaluation: A systemic approach. London,

206

UK: Sage.

Ruth Simmons. (n.d.). Contemporary Black Biography. Retrieved from

Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/ruth-j-simmons

Ryu, M. (2010). Minorities in higher education. Washington, D.C.: American Council on

Education.

Sagon, C. (2005, August 15). Toque of the town: White House names 1st female

executive chef. The Washington Post. Retrieved from

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2005/08/14/AR2005081400625.html

Sampson, E. (1993). Identity politics: Challenges to psychology's understanding.

American Psychologist, 48, 1219-1230.

Sandler, B. (1993). The campus climate revisited: Chilly for women faculty,

administrators, and graduate students. In J. S. Glazer, E. M. Bensimon & B. K.

Townsend (Eds.), Women in higher education: A feminist perspective (pp. 175-

204). Needham Heights, MD: Simon & Schuster.

Saunders, E. V., (2007). A narrative analysis of four African American women’s work

experiences across four diverse fields and the meaning constructed at the

intersection of race and gender. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University

of Maryland, College Park.

Shorter-Gooden, K. (2004). Multiple resistance strategies: How African-American

women cope with racism and sexism. Journal of Black Psychology, 30(3), 406-

425.

207

Silverman, D. (1992) Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analyzing talk, text and

interaction (1st ed.). London, UK: Sage.

Simmons, R. (1998). My mother’s daughter: Lessons I learned in civility and

authenticity. Texas Journal of Ideas, History and Culture, 20, 20–29.

Simmons, R. (1995). Sister president: Ruth Simmons. Journal of Blacks in Higher

Education, 51.

Smith, L. (2013). African American females in senior-level executive roles navigating

predominately white institutions: Experiences, challenges and strategies for

success. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Texas, Austin.

Smith, R. (2002). Race, gender, and authority in the workplace: Theory and research.

Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 509-542.

Smith, H., (1982). Black female achievers in academe. The Journal of Negro Education,

51(3), 318-341.

Solorzano, D., & Yosso, T. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an

analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry. 23, 23-44.

Spelman College (2003). A chronology of Spelman College. Available from

http://www.Spelman.edu

Stanley, C.A. (2006). Coloring the academic landscape: Faculty of color breaking the

silence in predominantly white colleges and universities. American Educational

Research Journal, 43(4), 701-736. doi: 10.3102/00028312043004701

Stout, P.A., Staiger, J., & Jennings, N. A. (2007). Affective stories: Understanding the

208

lack of progress of women faculty. Feminist Formations, 19(3), 124-144.

Retrieved from

http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/journals/nwsa_journal/v019/19.3stout.html

Stroud, R. (2009). Theorizing African American women's leadership in predominantly

white institutions of higher education.(Doctorate dissertation) Retrieved from

http://utexas.summon.serialssolutions.com/link/0/eLvHCXMwQ-

w8Qi4PjAmXB6A9Iya6hmbgk_dDXM3dwsxcfC28kUp7N1EGOTfXEGcPXVip

GZ-SkxNvaA7aL2ppYWxoyHdLeie7W4IX08TlH4X5frtkAACk-imI

Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology.

London, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G.

Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp.

33, 47). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Thayer-Bacon, B. (2000). Transforming critical thinking: Thinking constructively. New

York, NY: Teaching College.

The American Association of University Women. Retrieved February 1, 2014,

from http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/.

Thomas, G., & Hollenshead, C. (2001). Resisting from the margins: The coping strategies

of Black women and other women of color faculty members at a research

university. The Journal of Negro Education, 70(3), 166-175.

Thompson, G. L., & Louque, A.C. (2005). Exposing the “culture of arrogance” in the

academy: A blueprint for increasing Black faculty satisfaction in higher

209

education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Thompson, Mark. (2013, December 13). Navy names first 4-star female admiral. Time.

Retrieved fromhttp://swampland.time.com/2013/12/13/navy-names-first-4-star-

female-admiral/#ixzz2skKAJvFy

Touchton, J. G. (2008). A measure of equity: Women's progress in higher education.

Washington, DC: Association of American College and Universities.

Touchton, J. G., Shavlik, D., & Davis, L. (1993). Women in presidencies. Washington,

DC: American Council on Education.

Trower, C., & Chait, R. (March/April 2002). Faculty diversity: Too little for too long.

Harvard Magazine, 33.

Turner, C. S.V. (2002). Women of color in academe: Living with multiple marginality.

The Journal of Higher Education, 73(1), 74-93. doi: 10.1353/jhe.2002.0013

Turner-Essel, L. (2013). The critical consciousness development of Black women

activists: A qualitative examination (Unpublished dissertation). The University of

Akron, Akron, OH.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). Census demographic profiles. Retrieved from

http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb13-112.html.

U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian. Frequently asked questions:

Distinguished African-Americans. Retrieved from

http://history.state.gov/about/faq/distinguished-african-americans.

Valverde, L. A. (2011). Women of color: Their path to leadership makes for a better

210

higher education for all. Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent Past,

Promising Future, 9, 49-75.

Villenas, S. (1996). The colonizer/colonized chicana ethnographer: Identity,

marginalization, and co-optation in the field. Harvard Educational Review, 66(4),

711-731.

Walker, A. In search of our mothers’ gardens: Womanist prose by Alice Walker. San

Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.

Walker, A. (2003). In search of our mothers' gardens: Womanist prose. New York, NY:

Mariner Books.

Wallace, M. (1978). Black macho and the myth of the superwoman. New York, NY: Dial

Press.

Ward, J. (1996). Raising resisters: The role of truth telling in psychological development

of African American girls. In Ross, B. J. & Way, Niobe. Urban girls: Resisting

stereotypes, creating identities (pp 85-99). New York, NY: New York University

Press.

Waring, L. (2003). African-American female college presidents: Self conceptions of

leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Watt, D. (2007). On becoming a qualitative researcher: The value of reflexivity. The

Qualitative Report 12(1), 82-101.

Willa Player, 94, pioneer Black educator. (2003, August 30). The New York Times. p. 7.

Williams, T. (2012). Job satisfaction of African American female faculty: Role of race

and gender. (Doctoral dissertation) Retrieved from Electronic Theses, Treatises

211

and Dissertations. Paper 5458.

Wolfe, B. L. (2010). When being Black isn't enough: Experiences and persistence

strategies of six African American administrators at a PWI. (Doctoral

dissertation) Retrieved from

http://utexas.summon.serialssolutions.com/link/0/eLvHCXMwQ-

w8Qi4PjAmXB8CWPzDvgc4uAd2w4GruFmbm4mvhjVTau4kyyLm5hjh76MJK

zfiUnJx4IyMLC2BRbAzMtnzrjE_0ld_xubthX9eeHo1iNgDDLiuZ

Wolverton, M., & Gonzales, M. J. (2000). Career paths of academic deans. (ERIC

Document Reproduction Services No. ED 442 447).

Young, L. (1984). Black women faculty in academia: Strategies for career leadership

development. Educational and Psychological Research, 4(3), 133-145.

Zamani, E. M. (2003). African American women in higher education. New Directions for

Student Services, 2003(104), 5-18. doi: 10.1002/ss.103.

Zywicki, T., (2010, February 17). Brown president resigns as Goldman director. [Web

log comment]. Retrieved from http://volokh.com/2010/02/17/brown-president-

resigns-as-goldman-director/.

212

Appendices

213

Appendix A

HerStory: Her Ethos

Perhaps it was this invented comfort that became the ultimate enabler of much of what I have accomplished in my life. Perhaps the solace and excitement of that world saved me

from losing hope, saved me from retreating from my aspirations when others were hostile to my ambitions and achievement, saved me when I started my career and found myself

isolated as the only African American in my group or at my rank, saved me when my advocacy for educational access pitted me against others, saved me when I was trying to

do justice to managing a career and parenthood.

-Ruth Simmons

In Chapter 5, I reframed Dr. Ruth Simmons HerStory using solely her voice,

permitting her to take back her narrative and tell HerStory. I also related Simmons’

experiences, strengths and attributes, and challenges and barriers as the first African

American woman college president including not only her presidency but also her life

leading up to becoming president.

This chapter builds upon Chapter 5 by allowing Simmons to voice her personal

ethos, her authentic expression of her values and beliefs. Structured from an, in-depth

data analysis of her personal archives (speeches, articles and reports) and from a personal

interview. Throughout this chapter there are constant messages entailing social injustices

that draw on Simmons’ own life experiences, HerStory, from childhood through her

journey to the presidency. These messages encompass her perspectives on the future of

academia and society. Simmons also shares her personal ethos to appeal, convince,

educate, inspire, lead, and compel others into action to fight social injustices.

Simmons’ personal experience with social injustices spanned throughout

HerStory beginning with her childhood to her journey to the presidency. The following is

214

a glimpse of experiences that assisted in the development of Simmons’ ethos. These

experiences consist of social movements that had a lasting influence on Simmons,

obstacles she faced and the evolution of the world around her.

There were two movements that tremendously impacted Simmons’ life, the Civil

Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement. Both equipped Simmons to educate and

inspire future generations.

Growing up, I always felt I was being fairly aggressive in pursuing my interests,

and I was unwilling to accept a second-class status. But in truth, a lot of this was

confusing to me because this was before the Civil Rights era, and frankly, Blacks were so

subjugated that being a woman and Black, it was hard to know whether the limitations

placed on you were gender related or race related. I didn’t even recognize segregation as

a line that I could cross. The Women’s Movement also had an enormously powerful

impact on my career because although we went through the civil rights struggle and I got

in the door, I was still impeded by this notion that women could not do certain things.

It is important for Simmons to share HerStory of traversing the chasm between

being African American and a woman, the obstacles she faced but also how she

overcame those obstacles on her pathway to the presidency.

An independent mind, a determination to do things that would be unpopular, a

sense of holding people accountable and an absolute dedication to doing this because of

the history in my family and the history of racism in the United States so, somehow I

thought it was important to be of an independent mind and when necessary to be of a

fighting mind when it came to addressing some other longstanding ills of racism in the

215

United States. Sometimes it’s very hard to be generous when oppression is so great and

when exclusion is so painful. Yet, what I have learned is that it is essential to be your

most generous when people are being their most awful.

The biggest obstacle I faced coming along was working mostly in predominately

white institutions; the biggest obstacle was the fact that people just didn’t know what to

do with me. I always believed that it was important for me to be unapologetically who I

am; and therefore, I didn’t make it easier for people coming along. So, if I’m in a meeting

and they said something that was offensive to me, I often said it was offensive to me. I

always reacted as honestly as I could to what people were doing. If I saw policies that

were unfair, I tended to point that out. For a time I was a pariah; a lot of people were

uncomfortable around me because I was not in the in-crowd in most of the places where I

worked.

When you reach a certain level and you are trying to lead, it’s harder to be a

woman because people still find it difficult to be led by women. My sense is that in the

academy, men, if they have ability, are much more likely to be able to make it. Very early

on in my career I had to wrestle with the fact that I was so different and naturally

marginalized always. The moment that I realized wherever I went and whatever I did I

would always have to justify myself. That was going to be my life. I was never going to be

able to escape it. And therefore it seemed to me to take charge of that, to accept the fact

that that is the way my life would be lived. That I could let go of trying to prove myself to

people because I would have an extraordinary, extraordinarily difficult job to do with

everybody that I met. So, I decided to let go of that. I remember I wanted to leave a mark

216

for all the people who are marginalized by fighting the very idea that people, because

they are different are less. So, I just started to express ideas, not about what was wrong,

what institutions needed to be; and I wanted to give voice to that. That was very

important to me. So, I gradually found myself doing that.

I was always isolated. I was the only Black person most of the time, other than at

Spelman, operating in my sphere and often the only woman as well. It was very helpful to

have national organizations that provided some kind of support system. I joined women’s

groups whenever I could, I joined African American support groups whenever I could. I

tried to bring people together to provide that for them. I’m a big, big fan of the kind of

affinity groups that exist within organizations. Where if you’re gay, you have a gay

support group; if you’re African American, you have an African American or minority

support group. I think these kinds of organizations have really helped to level the playing

field greatly and give people the support they need in sometimes a very alien

environment.

Most of the time coming along, I had absolutely nobody really to talk to because I

was alone, I mean really alone, in the kinds of jobs I was doing. For most of the time

there was nobody else around who even could begin to understand what I was doing and

how I was doing it. When a boss said, ‘I’m not going to raise your salary as much as I am

for the guy who’s in the next office cause you don’t really need it because your married

and you don’t need the money.’ Who do you go to talk to about pay discrimination when

there is nobody who’s going through that at the same time? Support groups were very,

very important to me.

217

Without Simmons’ awareness the world changed around her and the obstacles she

once faced no longer existed.

What happened during the course of time was society evolved; and this difficult

person who was pointing out certain issues that were unjust, unequal pay, expectations of

minorities that were not expected of others and actions that create a chilly environment

for women and minorities evolved to the point where people said, ‘That’s the way it

should be.’ All of a sudden in my last days at Princeton, I had discovered that the world

changed had changed around me and I became more acceptable. Because I not only

became more acceptable but because I often played a leadership role in trying to redefine

the environment, it became more logical for people, for me to play a leadership role. I

think it was the evolution of things around me that really made those obstacles go away,

and I wasn’t aware it was happening until it actually happened.

On Being the First African American President of an Ivy League

Simmons has gained a reputation as a wise counselor and a great advocate for

education but is leery of being described as the first African American to head an Ivy

League university.

Most of us did not expect to see an African American president of an Ivy League

in our lifetime. For me knowing the importance of it for so many people who are African

American, I’m not entitled to resent it. I’m not because there are people who’ve waited

their entire lives thinking that they would die before a place like Brown would ever have

a person like me leading it. It’s okay to notice that it happened, but to make too much of

218

it is probably not a good thing. You can’t substantively do the job on the basis of the fact

that you’re African American. You have to do the job based on what you have to offer.

If I do poorly, I would shut a lot of doors. I believe that I’m in a double bind in a

real sense; and that is if I do well as president, people will point to how remarkable that

is, that despite the fact that I am an African American, I still did very well as president.

And if I do very poorly as president, people will say, ‘Well, you see, she’s an African

American, and she just didn’t fit. She just didn’t do well.’

Simmons considers becoming the first Black president of an Ivy League an

accident of history and coincidence that she just happened to be born and grow up in the

time period that gave her the chance to be the first.

A lot of people made a good deal over the fact that I was the first Black president

of an Ivy League university, not really a big deal at all, an accident of history. Someday,

someone would have broken the barrier. I know as much as anybody what tremendous

talent there is around this country in higher education. Because there are so many people

I know to be capable at that level, it’s just hard for me to understand how I could be

singled out to achieve that. There are so many people like me who have done much more

significant things who have not received recognition. There’s no honor in being the first

African American to do this, that or the other. Where’s the honor in that?

How does it happen that I am the first person to do what I’m doing? It’s an

accident. It just means that I came along at a time when there had not been any others,

but I also know that I came along at a time when there ought to have been many others

before me. That’s not something to celebrate, actually. You see, I know the politics of

219

higher education. I just never believed I would see the day when an African American

was named president of an Ivy League university or Seven Sister college.

Simmons doesn’t consider herself a pioneer and finds being called “a pioneer”

offensive.

Broke through glass ceiling? No, but everybody seems to think I have. I try not to

concern myself with being a pioneer or a role model. I understand that if I simply do my

best, I will be honoring my commitment to social justice and equality. When people say,

‘Oh, you’re a role model,’ I cringe because I don’t think I believe in that, frankly. I

always say to people that they shouldn’t look up to people. The people who influenced me

were humble people. They would have never been on the nightly news. They would have

never been looked up to by other people. I was doing what I thought was possible within

the parameters set for me by society, not anticipating that one day I would be free to

pursue a career like the one that I have. I never expected to be a significant public figure.

On Her Style of Governance

Simmons possessed a unique style of governance. She governed with

transparency. She was a champion for individuals who were distrusted by the academy

because they were different and their ideas were unconventional.

I aimed to be an honest broker for faculty who were innovative and had cutting-

edge ideas. I have always wanted to find a place in the academy where very good ideas

could be supported even though they fell outside the mainstream. I looked for the people

who couldn’t get their ideas through, for those gems of whom the academy was

distrustful. I tried to look beyond what I thought was the appearance of quality to the

220

underlying merit of ideas. It is the people who fight hardest, who are the most

cantankerous, and the most different, and the most offbeat that I’m attracted to in the

academy. Those are the people I always want to support first because to me they’re

closer to the soul of the academy and it doesn’t matter to me that they might be wrong

and it doesn’t matter to me that they make my life uncomfortable; that’s what I find

thrilling.

I'm proudest in the way that I tried to govern, that is to say with transparency,

with full inclusion of the community in the decision-making process. I worked very hard

on governance because it was important to me continuing on the same theme of the

freedom of people to participate in the democratic process. I'm proudest perhaps of that.

But in addition to that, I think both Smith and Brown expanded greatly under my

leadership. I created an engineering program for women at Smith College: the first, the

only one at a women's college in the United States.

The goal is still there that I can somehow feel at some point when I get ready to

retire from higher education that there’s something different in higher education as a

result of my having been here. I don’t think that’s true yet.

Simmons extracted numerous leadership lessons from everywhere and everyone

along her journey. Even bad experiences taught her life-long leadership lessons, which

challenged her to think about the kind of leader she wanted to be and served as a

springboard for her leadership style.

It’s very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground

and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed. And that seems to be

221

all-important if you’re going to lead well. The other thing is just how unpleasant it is to

work in an environment where you’re demeaned or disrespected. It calls for us who lead

to pay attention to the ill expressed and the suppressed, the unconventional and less

empirical, the subjective subliminal. For underlying so much in the strife and distrust

that plague the world is the persistent need of every human being to be treated with

respect no matter where he or she stands in relation to will power and privilege.

I had some bad experiences, and I don’t think we can say enough in leadership

about what bad experiences contribute to our learning. I worked for someone who did

not support me. And it was a very painful experience, and in many ways a defining

experience for me. So having a bad supervisor really probably started me thinking about

what I would want to be as a supervisor. That led me to think about the psychology of the

people I worked with. And in some ways, because I had exhibited behavior that was not

the most positive in the workplace myself, it gave me a mirror to what I might do that

might be similarly undermining of others. So I think at that juncture that’s really when I

started being much more successful.

As a leader, Simmons believes it is essential to take risks, but one must encourage

others to do the same.

Leadership is all about enabling people to see what they would really like to see,

but they’re afraid to undertake because it’s a frightening world out there, and they don’t

want to have to test it. Leadership is about staking out an area where you can do a good

job and caring enough about that job to take chances, to put your skills on the line, to put

your viewpoints and vision on the line, and then seeing what works. Often women and

222

minorities think they have to imitate to be successful. They think they have to do what

their white peers are doing or they have to be invisible and quiet and that will get them

someplace. If there’s anything that marks my career, it is that I never believed that and I

never cared about that.

There’s nothing worse than a leader who lacks ambition. If you are the kind of

person who listens to conservative advice, you may do okay in life, but you probably

won’t ever be a fantastic leader. You have to take risks, and you also have to go against

conventional wisdom because conventional wisdom doesn’t make for startling advances

in society. Fear of failure is the fuel of achievement. If you weren’t afraid to fail, you

probably wouldn’t be highly motivated to work at the level that most of us have to work

at to do well.

If you think that in our time being a disruptor was easy, you don’t understand

what it was like. It was mean, it was a very mean world. I think that the thing to

remember, here’s what’s finally struck me at some point and actually allowed me to be

president of Brown because without this knowledge I couldn’t have taken the job. And I

certainly wouldn't have been able to do well in it. Here's the big secret people never tell

you and that is leadership is really what people are desperately seeking and sometimes

they don't know that they are. Sometimes they don't know that they want disruption. But,

if you are involved in searches at all, you know that when people are searching for

leaders the last thing in the world they want is a compliant person because they know

with that they get no leadership at all. So, what they're actually looking for, they’re

looking for that spark of courage, of innovation, of creativity; and where we often fail as

223

women, I give this lecture to women all the time. Women who come into my office, I say,

‘Well, tell me what are your thoughts and what do you need?’ And you know what they

say for the most part? ‘I’m just happy to be here.’ There is a sense among many that in

order to warrant remaining, to be a part of the community, you have to be compliant. But

if you are compliant, that is really the worst thing that you can do because you become

undifferentiated and you've become further marginalized and further dismissed because

you’re not bringing all of what you offer to the institution; and what institutions crave

more than anything is all of what you have to give: your energy, your complete energy,

your analysis of works and what doesn't work. I would encourage you to think in terms of

what you can do that adds value. It doesn't add a lot of value to just imitate what's

already there. And it's going to be difficult; there's no question about that. Everybody

who decides to break off in a new direction and to pursue a new field, for example, is

taking risks because there will be people who do not understand what you're trying do;

and if you offer a different perspective, there will be people who don't understand it and

who dismiss it.

As a leader, Simmons expects to encounter criticism.

That's what comes with leadership; people are testing you at every turn and

looking to see what you do as a consequence of the challenges that they present. And you

have to be up to the challenge. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to survive in what is

very often a tough environment this is not a career for the faint at heart. For our critics

would have us believe that the times require application, rather than creation.

224

If you come to a leadership role on the basis of your experience, knowledge and

ability, you have to assume ownership of that, which means you endorse the notion that

you deserve to be where you are because your leadership has almost unquestionably

been vetted. You are entitled to make decisions. But you’re also required to withstand the

criticism when those decisions turn out to be unpopular. Managing leadership is

managing cynicism; sometimes you look like a fool or don’t express yourself as well.

Sometimes people criticize or say that you’re too assertive. You have to accept that not

because you like it, but because you know it comes with being a leader.

According to Simmons, acknowledging, understanding and meeting basic human

needs are the very essence of a leader.

Moral leadership on the part of institutions does not reside in one individual or in

one body. It does not rest with one decision or one failure to act. It rests in the totality of

how a university community defines its role and values then acts on it over time.

One of the first and most important things from my experience as a university

leader is the burden and the responsibility of leadership in the academy. I think the

balance in reform leaders is the most vital part of the equation that solves for the

reconciliation of intergroup conflict. Leaders who model the desired behavior for the

beloved community are more important than we often acknowledge. Elite institutions

make much of intelligence and education and quantifiable results. We think too much

about analysis and about empirical results, and we know precious little about the

admixture of emotions we are made up of as human beings. Leaders have to get that

because they won't be able to lead if they only look at the kinds of facts and figures that

225

come to them as leaders. Meaningful experience with different cultures, friendships

across race, political perspective, religion and identities, evidence of respect for different

and adverse points-of-view all make for better leaders in a multicultural world.

There are such moments for all of us as learners when we can see beyond our

community, beyond our clan, beyond our nation, to what is possible when mankind puts

its intelligence and its knowledge of basic human needs and capacities in service of

improving the world. That moment when we look outside of who we are and embrace

what we have to learn from difference. That moment can be the moment that launches the

best of our leadership capacity.

On Not Changing Who You Are

Simmons is a firm believer in being yourself unapologetically.

There’s so many factors that you cannot quantify. You can’t quantify the

connection that you make with people, you can’t quantify whether or not people will feel

inspired to follow, you can’t quantify whether or not your ideas are actually good enough

for x number of people to sign on to them. It’s an elixir of sorts that you can’t really

always mix in exactly the same way. So, what I relied on in my time is just a basic

authentic approach to people coming from a deep well of experience. And what I

promised myself I’d never do is apologize for that experience. I know what I know. I’ve

done what I’ve done. I was born what I was born. And I always wanted to bring all of

that to what I do because seeing all of that people have a chance to understand your

leadership more fully. And then you can establish trust, and people can understand what

you’re all about because you make terrible mistakes when you do these jobs. And the

226

question is not always whether you make mistakes but whether or not a community has

the wherewithal to forgive you for the terrible mistakes you make. That’s the only way a

leader can survive, by having the trust of the community to do just that, to extend a hand

when there’s difficulty or to forgive you when you do something that is not good.

A life of success is not about imitating what others have done; it’s about

searching for the things that matter to you and trying to make use of all the talent you

have. Being successful is trying to do that with the highest degree of intention. One of the

things I try to do in my role as president is to be a good model for my students. And so I

always return to this fundamental principal: I am who I am, I am different by virtue of

where I was born, by virtue of the time I was born in; and so my perspective is what’s

most valuable about my leadership because my experience has been different.

There are people who believe that in order to achieve you have to suppress

everything about you and imitate some prevailing modal. I just want young people to

know that isn’t at all true. The truer you are to who you are, the better you can lead.

When my students at Brown would ask me all the time what they could do in order to

achieve what I’ve achieved, I always said, ’The best thing you can do is really to dig

deeply within yourself to know who you are and never ever run away from that.’

The advice I would offer is never ever let anyone take away from you that sense of

yourself and that sense of dignity. You can be who you are. It doesn't matter whether your

investment banking or whether you are doing not-for-profit work. You can still be the

person that you were born to be. Don't ever let anybody take that away from you. Never

let anyone force you to apologize for who you are.

227

Simmons has advice for women aspiring to be academic leaders.

I would hope that they would be passionate about equal access and fairness. I

would hope they would govern from the perspective of demonstrating how powerful it is

for us to respect each other as human beings. I would hope that they would never change

who they are in order to govern. Most of the time when we’re selected as leaders we’re

selected because of who we are, but often people become imbued with the notion that they

must imitate some other model once they become leaders. So, what one of the things I've

tried to do is to be staunchly who I am and to bring all of who I am to my leadership

roles. That means that little girl who grew up very poor, sitting in this chair, I haven't

forgotten her. I'm motivated by the things that she experienced, I’m motivated by thinking

about girls like that who will be coming along after me. I am the person who was

outspoken and worked hard for equal rights for women and for minorities when I become

a leader and the first African American president at an Ivy League university. I want

people to say that's who I still am. So, it's been important to me not to change, not to

round out the rough edges, not to accommodate some image that people have of who I

should be but to be staunchly who I am and who I have always been.

On the Role of Parents

The best thing parents can do for their children, according to Simmons, is to give

them a sense of love and support and be open to the idea that they need to learn.

When I talk with parents who have been influenced by the absurd notion that

somehow one has to be of a certain social class or have a certain amount of education to

be an important mentor to one’s children, I don’t believe that for a minute. I am

228

associated with elite higher education, yes; but when I speak to parents, especially poor

parents, I always say to them, ‘You can be as good a parent as the wealthiest parent. You

can teach your child the right approach to life, the right values to give them a lifetime of

protection as they make their way through life.’ They may not be able to give their

children the best, this is what I tell them: ‘When I watched my mother iron those mounds

of clothes and move the iron around those buttons, absolutely insisting that she do the

very best job she could, that is how I learned to be a college president.

On Students

Simmons believes society needs a population that is well educated, able to retool

quickly in response to economic and technological changes, and able as well to be

critically adaptive as the world constantly changes.

When I get up every day and think about my work, that’s really what I think

about. I don’t think about the money that I’m raising. I don’t think about the facilities

meeting I’m going to. I think about my students and whether or not there’s one that will

do something important because of a simple thing I did for them, like Miss Ida Mae did

for me.

What helped me most growing up is I knew somewhere that this world I lived in, a

world of segregation and bigotry, wasn’t really the real world. I knew that and what I

had to do was go outside it, and that’s what everybody has to do; they have to find a way

to be a part of that larger world. And if they do that, they’ll be better problem solvers,

they’ll be better leaders, they’ll be better mothers, they’ll be better partners, they’ll be

better in every respect if they have that broader purview.

229

There are ways in which I think whatever we have done over the past years has

represented an immense contribution from students. Because some of the ideas that they

have come up with, frankly, have been extraordinarily well-researched, extraordinarily

well-considered and often their ideas are just – well, first of all, their ideas are bountiful,

and secondly, they’re often excellent ideas. So I’ve regarded students in this process as

partners in a very challenging and important endeavor. And perhaps partly my respect

for students and the role that they play is understood.

Simmons feels it is her responsibility to talk to young people about the challenges

they will encounter as they journey through life and about what it will take for them to

lead. The following is what she advises.

If you're learning has taught you to be curious and open minded, you'll be open to

the unexpected lessons in life and live every day in anticipation of the possibility that the

greatest lesson of your life can present itself on your path at any moment. One has to be

open and alert at every turn to the possibility that you’re about to learn the most

important lesson of your life.

Fight for those who haven’t the means to protect themselves, work to preserve the

spirit of this college as a place for the free exchange of ideas, however much those ideas

elicit discomfort, challenge, and debate. The act of becoming a person of moral

discernment and deep personal conviction is essential in ameliorating injustices that rise

up, in challenging institutions that oppress, and in addressing inequities that destroy

human relations. The actions we take may be deemed unwise or offensive on the one

230

hand, or they may elicit a multitude of encomiums on the other. One’s voice grows

stronger in encounters with opposing views.

I know that you have certain hopes and plans and that you have the intelligence

and determination to make them materialize. I also know that life happens. I hope that

your studies and experiences will have given you the wherewithal to live with the

uncertainty that life inevitably brings. At the same time, I trust that you will grow in your

ability to be impatient for positive change, to discern the good from the merely adequate,

to embrace the challenge of fighting for those who are less fortunate, to insist that your

choices measure up to your values, and in all things to allow for the fact that change will

come. Hope not for what is feasible but for what is needed, work not for the best that you

think you can do but for all that should be done. Fight, fight, fight for the rights of the

many over the privilege for the few. Be what your education tells you you can be, the

best! I hope your voices are strong and resonant. I hope your voices will become even

stronger in the years ahead, as we continue to fight human trafficking; social, economic

and health disparities; unjust incarceration; acts of human genocide and exploitation;

and still massive civil rights violations. Don't just go forward with your plans as they are

carefully mapped out; remember to dream big and dream hard.

On Education as a Movement

Because of the tremendously positive impact teachers had on her life, Simmons

constantly reminds others of the importance of teachers.

We stress too much the circumstances of people’s birth. I made my way in school

because I found teachers who encouraged me. There are many talented people who

231

happen to be born poor, and they have great potential if we have ways of fostering that

potential.

I still believe the educational calling is the very best calling you can heed;

teaching is the best thing you can do for others. The teacher-student relationship is the

core of a good education. If we want to save our schools, we’ve got to understand it

won’t be because of computers; it won’t be anything but having teachers who care. We

offer numerous incentives for researchers and discovery, but few for true genius in

teaching. How can future generations of faculties choose the path of inspired, ever-

improving and selfless leadership in their fields if we fail in our duty to keep education

alive in its full measure, insisting not only on its duty to empirical research but also in its

majesty; for nothing is so beautiful, nothing so moving as the observance of a mind at

work?

Thinking about the experiences I’ve been through and looking around that table

and seeing the other presidents and being in that room and knowing that for all those

young people out there who have a spark of genius that the opportunity is there for them

to do exactly what I did. They could be leading an Ivy League university, they could be

leading our country, they could be helping people all over the world but for the lack of

opportunity to be in a school where they can have their needs met.

Simmons believes education has the ability to transform lives.

Children are the sacred trust. The future depends on how well young people are

educated. It’s puzzling to me that our government says it wants to improve economic

stability but wants to cut funding to education. Education offers the possibility of

232

empowerment. I realized the development of the human intellect was a useful thing and it

could be applied to conflict resolution, to overturning injustice, to healing, to being a

caring person, and to passing on knowledge to the next generation. Everyone, every

child, irrespective of their means, should have access to that kind of empowerment. That

is why I stayed in education: it is a very powerful medium.

Education offers the greatest possibility for us to learn about the true scope of the

life we live. And if we can learn that, I think we can solve a lot of the problems that we

face. That doesn’t mean that every person who is educated will be pure and just.

Education doesn’t make up for character deficiencies. Education can lead to

empowerment and edification for the human psyche. If education could eradicate the

many constraints of my early life, it could also be the answer to advancing the wellbeing

of millions. Fighting for that idea became the focus of my work in the academy and fueled

my determination to persevere through failures, obstacles, cynicism, and

discouragement.

I know firsthand how vital the quality of school and teachers is for young people.

Sometimes the only difference for a child without economic means, the only difference

that can be made in that child’s life is sometimes getting to a school and finding

somebody there who embraces them, who inspires them, who gives them hope, and who

says simply you can do it. And that happened to me as a child. While the socioeconomic

and pre-Civil Rights conditions in which I grew up suggested limited options for me,

education did a lot of blocking and tackling that made all the difference in the life I could

have.

233

While the Civil Rights Act made discrimination illegal, passing legislation was

just the beginning of the struggle for equal opportunity, equality and access. In the past

10 years, numerous politicians including President Bush and President Obama have

declared inequality in education is the civil rights issue of our generation. Unequal

treatment in many areas can be overcome, but inequities in education can have lifetime

ramifications. Our vastly disbursed educational outcomes across the racial divides

portends differential life outcomes for our children, making this one of the most

significant impediments to a level playing field for children.

I’m persuaded by the assertion that what’s missing is a widespread inclusive

movement to eliminate disparities in education and in the same way that civil rights was

a broad social and political movement. The work on education has been focused thus far

on practices, on principles, on individual programs on reform. And while this continues

to be important work, a larger social and political force may be required to bring about

the structural and systemic change needed. Education is the critical component to

eradicating racism and ending discrimination, and yet educational structures are

contributing to the very racism and discrimination education seeks to end.

The noise from this discord may cause others to criticize the legitimacy of the

academic enterprise, but how can knowledge advance without the questions that overturn

misconceptions, push further into previously impenetrable areas of inquiry and assure us

stunning breakthroughs in human knowledge? If there is anything that colleges must

encourage and protect it is the persistent questioning of the status quo. Our health as a

nation, our health as women, our health as an industry requires it.

234

Simmons believes education should not be elitist, and all young people should

have the opportunity to get a first-rate education that is fit for what they need.

Elitism in education should pertain not to the place where one studies or to the

field of study undertaken, but to the singular devotion one has to the exacting devotion of

discipline. It is not a good thing for the premier universities in this country to be seen as

the province of the wealthy. Losing touch with the broad spectrum of citizens of their

country, becoming isolated as institutions, is not in the interest of higher education

generally and certainly is not in the interest of these institutions. So that basically means

that anybody who is bright enough, capable enough, should see themselves as able to

apply to and be considered for admission to the top universities in this country.

Education itself should not be elitist, but that educators are an elite group. Brown

should be considered elite not because it is part of any particular group but because it is

committed to education. I worked very hard on making the university available to and

accessible to the students with the least economic ability to attend so-called elite

institutions. It was my belief that the Ivy League ought to be the province of the poorest in

our country and carrying that message forward was extremely important to me. And so,

expanding financial aid and making Brown need blind and increasing financial

assistance at Smith, I think most people would say that those were among my most

important achievements.

On the Importance of Educating Young Girls and Empowering Women

We are still in a world where women are told they cannot achieve. Simmons

believes she can debunk that notion.

235

I hope my own stories will help women see what they can attain. This is really the

area of the greatest importance it seems to me because the social problems that arise

because of the fact that those women are held back it goes to their children, it goes to

their grandchildren and it continues. A kind of hopelessness because these women are not

able to earn at the appropriate level and they don’t have the rights that most of us take

for granted in the middle class. It’s not true that all barriers faced by women have come

down.

Because operating from the margin, you have the great advantage of surprising

people all the time. And that’s terrific. So, somehow I think, women, and I would love to

say that is no longer present; but I know that would be a lie, so I wouldn’t dare say that.

There have been moments in my presidency at Brown where I’ve heard the same things I

heard earlier in my career. Where I’ve heard resistance to women doing certain kinds of

things and whether they have the capacity to lead on the same basis as men. I’ve heard

people make references to tenure cases, which women are doing odd kinds of research

that pales in comparison with the great work that men are doing. So, these things are still

with us. And therefore, it's very exciting to be in a position to still do this work. It’s a

crusade, and that is to make it possible for people to be considered for what they bring

and who they are and not measured falsely against the standard that really is not the

standard we should be looking at.

Women assume that they have to be just like everybody else and downplay

whatever is unique about them. I think it’s just the opposite. Whatever I’ve accomplished

in my life, I’ve done it precisely because I have been different. I have expressed different

236

opinions, and I have been outspoken. I don’t have any regrets about what remained

unsaid or unspoken. The regrets I have are about decisions that I didn’t take because I

thought somebody else knew better. I think women always have a little twinge of thinking

that maybe somebody else is smarter, somebody else has the secret formula for reaching

the right decision. I have to fight against that sometimes.

You have earned your place, and you should never forget that because although

you have your graduate degree or soon will have, you're still going to meet people who

talk over you, who dismiss what you say, who minimize the importance of who you are

and what you can bring. That's going to happen anyway, but I hope that one of the things

this terrifying mascot will give you the courage to do is to fight back. Don't let anybody

treat you like a second-class citizen ever.

According to Simmons educating young girls is imperative.

I know because of my experience in the South that a strong education is the key to

ensuring the success of young girls. Something magical happened to me when I was a

girl. And I know what it means for somebody to reach across and to say to you, ‘You

matter, you’re smart, you can do things’ and that's what prompted me to go to school, to

stay in school, to go to college, and to become a college president. That encouragement

to care about someone in that way is an enormously powerful thing that we do, as a

society. When you educate a girl, you’re helping an entire family and you're helping

descendants of that generation the girl is able to help; so it has a more lasting benefit to

society when you educate girls. That's been my own experience as a child of poverty; and

I think it's largely true that girls when they become mothers, especially, even when they

237

don’t, are inclined to help society more broadly and hand down the benefit of their

education to others.

Within academia, Simmons’ personal goal is to empower young women as they

journey through the college system.

Because the academy has long been influenced by powerful male voices. Those

powerful male voices shaped the academy. They even deliberately excluded women for a

period of time. When they finally admitted women, they thought there were certain kinds

of pursuits that were inappropriate for them, either because their minds were not strong

enough or because the pursuit of those areas would somehow harm the traditional roles

that women played in society. The academy also excluded women's perspectives. And I

would say that the denigration of those perspectives continues even today.

And here we are, a century later, we are still asking how to make women

comfortable in academia. Getting in isn’t the only part of the problem. So many are

dissuaded from pursuing higher education that they don’t seek it or drop out. Women had

the same aspirations as men. They were going to be physicists and astronomers and

chemists and mathematicians. But by the time they were sophomores or juniors, many of

those young women found themselves in her office with tears streaming down their

cheeks because some faculty member told her she couldn’t do the work. Women are often

made to feel unwelcome in the sciences, and that really does something to a child that’s

very hard to address. We should make sure that teachers really believe in a child’s

capacity to learn.

238

Women must be educated today as if their lives depend on it because for most of

them, their lives will. There remains in many parts of this country and the world a kind of

special education for women that manifestly undertrains women. This special

undereducation takes place in primary- and secondary-level schools and in colleges. And

in fact, it takes place in some of the best institutions in the country. In this stream, women

are still gently guided toward those areas that are defined as being suitable for their

dispositions. They are still directed to areas of their chosen fields that are thought to be

less demanding. Women who show promise for leadership roles and capacity for critical

decision making may be told that they are unattractive and unappealing. Girls who

single-mindedly pursue an interest may be deemed peculiar and awkward. Yes, 120 years

after Smith opened and as we approach the end of this century, these stereotypes

continue to undermine achievement and choice for girls and women in many of our

school systems, colleges and universities.

On the Future of Young Boys

Simmons is concerned with the ways boys are being socialized and what is

happening in the country with respect to boys.

One should be concerned about that number of boys consigned to special

education because of so-called behavioral problems. One should be concerned about the

ease with which we categorize young people who have certain difficulties because it

stigmatizes them and it also provides a kind of animosity in a sense towards learning that

is really unjustified. We have to meet students where they are, every student; and I think

that we have to be careful in going back into K through 12 and looking at what's

239

happening with boys because pretty soon if we don't do that we really will have an

educated class that is female; and that would not, it seems, be desirable because there

will be so much potential lost for boys who are stopping out of school at a much earlier

age. So I don't deny that I think that is a problem, that we should be doing something

about it; but that has to take place with parents. It has to take place in the early grade

because it actually starts to happen very early, and there is a link also in the African

American community, a very strong link between the so-called criminalization of young

males and their incarceration that we simply have not dealt with as a nation. And that's

one of the most urgent problems I think we face in this country is to figure out how to get

ourselves out of that mess because it is a mess, and it’s going to reap terrible things for

the country if we don't solve it. I think that is something that is a priority that we need to

address.

I recently accepted an invitation to speak to a group of young Black men at

Morehouse College, my son’s alma mater, about the subject of ethics in higher education.

These young men, so intense and full of promise, I thought, are the hope of our

community. The pressure they must feel everyday of their lives to fulfill the expectations

of their families, their mentors and teachers, their local institutions and communities,

their nation; and the diaspora must be immense. Even more daunting are their internally

imposed expectations. It is the very immensity of their duty, their debt, and their

expectation that could lead to their undoing.

240

On Civility

Civility is a subject of great interest to Simmons because she cares about this

country and feels a sense of responsibility for young people.

Civility is about crossing boundaries. It isn’t difficult to be civil to someone who

is exactly like us, someone with whom we have a deep affinity. It is quite another thing to

be civil to people who are different from us. Civility is not the same thing as harmony.

Rather, civility is about membership; etymologically that is where it comes from—

civilité—being a member of particular entity. People who are members of a social group

share familiar outlooks and goals. Being a member of a community does not mean that

we like everybody; it means that we work to sustain membership through shared

standards of conduct, shared norms which we generally agree to uphold.

Simmons is concerned about the harm group victimization causes because of her

own first-hand experiences in the Jim Crow South during the pre-Civil Rights era.

Our struggle for justice has to be wider than the space between our two oceans. It

has to embrace the world because there are children who have needs everywhere. And if

we can be an inspiration for them as they have been for us, that’s something I think we

ought to embrace. Our primary task is to teach our children fundamental respect for

other people. It is not possible to be involved in a hate crime if one genuinely respect

people; it is simply impossible for us to perpetrate violence against others if we are

respectful of human life.

Credible research on stereotype threat suggests the biased behavior and speech

has a proven adverse effect not only on the psyche and performance of groups victimized

241

by these kinds of incidents but also on those who are not members of the affected group.

Indeed, any group can be susceptible to the harmful effects of stereotyping although it's

clear in the studies that have been done that some groups experienced greater harm from

this kind of activity than others.

We can understand that the psychological damage done by stereotyping people

has real consequences in the way individuals of affected groups perform and in the way

they experience similar kinds of experiences. Inciting incidents that result from

stereotyping groups invariably result in extensive efforts to calm community tensions and

in some cases too hastily enact changes to mollify those protesting the incidence. But

while mollifying those who are offended, their actions often create adverse reactions

from those who resent leaders privileging one point of view over another. This is the

cycle that is so familiar to us when these kinds of incidents arise. The cycle of anger,

recrimination, and the resurrection of prior grievances is a deeply embedded

phenomenon in the interplay of group interests. And I think it's very important to post-

traumatic stress. It's amazing how one can find oneself years later in an environment in

which suddenly you recall all the horrible things that have happened to you through bias

and stereotyping.

I think of myself as being known as a very strong individual, I who is not given to

weaknesses. I was shocked recently to find myself in a situation where we were

discussing a particular group of students who had been deeply wounded and harmed by a

racial incident. I was shocked to discover myself unable to speak about this without

weeping, and I thought about that later and realized that's 1968 when a Harvard

242

professor did X to me. You know, that’s, that's, that's about things that have happened to

me in the past. Things that I thought I had lived beyond and overcome that are

somewhere deep in my psyche that come to the fore whenever there's a triggering event

and we should understand that when these occurrences are at issue that often what is

happening is people are recalling things that happened over a long period of time.

Simmons feels that her involvement in both white and Black institutions provided

an example of how we must move through artificial barriers that separate higher

education.

Living our lives well is an unending exercise in perfecting, who we are, how we

relate to others and how we serve God and the common good. But what more is there to

say about diversity? Have we not heard it all, and if we heard it all and made so many

efforts, why are we making so little progress in the area that perhaps counts most in

establishing a lasting union, the human-to- human interaction in which we avidly learn

about and respect difference and care for others in ways that elevate our commitment to

society and improve our experience as human beings. Like so many others, I've been

struck by the increased occurrence of events that call into question just how much

progress we have made in race relations, gender equality and diversity. For city after

city, community after community, campus after campus, institution after institution is

being thrown into devices of struggle around issues of community diversity and civility.

Simmons discovered that even through we strive for diversity we continue to

manage diversity largely through separation.

243

When people are in universities, which tend to be among the most diverse

institutions in society today, they take advantage of that diversity when they're at the

university. And when they leave, what do they do? They resegregate in their social

groups and in their neighborhoods. I pray that for the sake of our country and the sake of

the world that you won't do that. That one of the things you'll take away from this place is

that community should not have racial barriers. You should be open to people on the

basis of who they are and what they are. You should judge them according to that and not

according to whether or not they are in your social group, whether or not they have

enough money, whether or not they're the same color, whether or not they’re the same

faith. If this country is going to survive, the people who lead it have to get that.

In the diversity domain, leaders should be the fittest of the fit. All students need to

study the deep relevance and benefit of the diversity of the world and grapple with

advances and challenges to come. Using all our resources to create problem-solving to

restore ourselves is a mandate we should not ignore or refuse. Frequent interaction with

the other helps to form citizens who can navigate the confusing world of difference. The

very notion or expectation that all groups must be of one mind in a multicultural

community is inimical to our democratic approach to the jangling discords clashing

opinions is the most helpful vehicle of a healthy community; but if one is unaccustomed to

hearing differences of perspective, the clash of opinions and differences will be

alienating.

We do learn from the juxtaposition of these ideas and ideologies. And I try to

remember as university president that that's what this enterprise is all about, so I have to

244

be faithful to that myself if I want the university to thrive and to symbolize that myself. I

have to embrace the idea of engaging with people who have views that are very much

opposed to ours. In terms of changing an institution, you have to know that there is no

way to get there if you assembled a group of like-minded people and you want force

change; because you have a critical group of like-minded people, it will never be enough

to change. You have to have the rest of the community members who disagree come along

to some extent.

Simmons strongly believes that protecting free speech insulates us from being

silenced from our unpopular views.

My coming of age was marred by the wide acceptance of the violent suppression

of speech. Any criticism or complaint that was deemed unsuitable could result in

summary violence against one’s family and against one’s person. No forums of open

expression existed for me or mine in the Jim Crow South of my early youth. Once you

have tasted the bitterness and brutality of being silenced in this way, it is easy to

recognize the danger of undermining free speech. It is definitely not to try to prevent

people from speaking on controversial topics and voicing heinous opinions. We have to

be prepared to hear that, to see it, and to deal with that; and only in dealing with that can

we get better at understanding fundamentally what the makeup of a multicultural

community is. Free speech, advocacy, is a particular source of tension between minority

communities in mainstream institutions. Many groups on the margin resent officials

raising free speech as a justification for allowing hateful speech. Perhaps you've heard

the slogan ‘Hate speech is not free speech.’ Actually, hate speech is free speech unless it

245

can be shown to be unlawful, such as when creating a certain hostile environment or

harmful actions.

So, protecting the ability of individuals to express their opinions, however heinous

they may be, I think essential just as it is essential for those who disagreed with such

opinions to be free to express their opposition just as forcefully. I was called into a

community recently that was broken because of a free speech issue. I tried to explain to

the students that I was so grateful for the fact of having lived in a time when my voice

could not be heard, when I did not have the freedom of speech. I was so grateful to live in

an era where finely I had an equal right to free speech; and that understanding that I

could at any point oppose hate speech, oppose actions that were contrary to the values

that I held dear was just as important to me as any other right that I had. So, we have to

protect free speech because we need the right to counter bad things that happen and we

need to be able to speak powerfully to that and denounce things that need to be

denounced. So, if we take way others’ free speech, we take way our own; that's a very

basic precept that everybody should understand.

I would also say that the best experiences I’ve had probably arise from people

who have been in opposition to me at some point because it's fine to meet people who are

completely in agreement with our view of change; but to meet people who are in absolute

opposition to how we see the world and to have an opportunity to work with them and to

see whether we can learn from them and they can learn from us is another level of

endeavor.

246

Simmons believes institutions have a structure that reflects the diversity of

viewpoints, background, aims, personal expression, and sexuality but there is still much

work that needs to be done.

Fifty years after the historic I Have A Dream speech, many universities run for

cover when diversity is an issue. I don't mean that they are shooing diversity; quite the

contrary, on the whole, universities are much more intentional in their diversity efforts.

Officially, they welcome diversity; yet in many universities, diversity manifests itself in

soft and abhorrent tokenism in the mere tolerance of affinity-group programming and a

laissez faire statement on inclusion and free speech.

I believe there's a gap between the stated diversity mission of most institutions

and the actual will to engage seriously with diversity and to include diversity in their

curriculum. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that one can construct a meaningful

required course in diversity. It’s too broad a concept for that, but it is eminently possible

to have a rigorous set of courses and policies that reflect the importance of diversity to

the country and to the world. I do not mean the superficial exposure to historical facts

and figures. I mean constant exposure to the ways in which all knowledge is profoundly

inter-related. And to the fact that one cannot begin to understand the meaning and

potential of human existence without embracing the interconnectedness of knowledge and

all creation.

I want to speak about expectations and one of the things that’s always impressed

me in the institutions that I've been a part of that have been very focused on high

achievement is that it seems very easy to set high expectations of students and faculty, but

247

[there is] very limited willingness to accept high expectations in the area of diversity.

Now that has never made sense to me. Exceptional organizations invariably have high

expectations and they set high standards, but it's difficult to enforce and live by these

standards. One of the things that I tried to do when president was to be consistent in

setting high expectations of everybody. So, invariably students would come to me and

say, ‘Ruth I can't do it; I’m just fed up with having to live with the stereotypes that people

impose on me. I don't want to engage with people who don't understand who I am.’ My

response to that is ‘Then why do you think you're here? If you are not here to explain to

people who you are, what good are you to this community? Really? If you don't explain

to people why your hair is dreadlocked, then don’t come here. If you don't want explain

to people why you see things the way you see things, you’re never going to benefit from

being in this community.’ So, high expectations for personal behavior, high expectations

for academic rigor, high expectations for the way the people interact with each other is

absolutely essential because if you don't set high expectations for that, it's clear you’re

being inconsistent and you don't value it the way you value research, the way you value

high achievement.

The making and remaking of this country is an endless enterprise. It changes from

generation to generation, and so it will always be with universities. Whatever diversity is

today, it will not be 100 years from now. So diversity is something to be worked at all the

time. It's not something that you fix. It's not something that gets settled once and for all.

It's a dynamic part of the institution. It's something that one commits oneself to and works

at energetically all the time.

248

The role of the community. According to Simmons, the academy has become

too specialized which has led to the academy deviating from its mission of advancing

knowledge and inspiring new ideas. She believes teamwork is an important feature of

university work. Teamwork helps one sustain the sense of community that preexisted

university matriculation and builds skills–political and social–that ease the transition back

to regular communal and civic life. Teamwork also helps to build political communities

on campus that are important to developing skills of activism and leadership that are

important to community building and the preservation of safe and free societies.

I think that what I fight for is the capacity of the academy to be true to its mission,

which is to advance knowledge and to inspire new ideas. I fear that the academy has

strong tendencies in the opposite direction. It rewards sameness, the embellishment of

often discredited ideas; and it has a tendency to punish people for true innovation. The

academy is extraordinarily rule bound. It’s easy to fall into patterns of endorsing the

same kinds of work, vision, and scholarship that have been conducted before. Being so

tightly rule bound does not sit well for me in a place, the university, where creativity and

a sense of adventure should be forever present. The academy as an institution has a

tendency to be frightened by that which is new and different, which is the exact opposite

of what our mission is, to question and overturn the status quo.

One of the problems we have, of course, in universities is we’re so specialized,

and it's very difficult to draw people together to solve problems. That gets to be much

bigger and harder when you're in the real world because then you're drawing from

different agencies, competing against each other in government; for example, you're

249

trying to solve problems across different companies. This is very, very, hard to do; and I

think trying to encourage students to look beyond those barriers, those silos, to really

develop knowledge of widely different areas, skills and acting across those areas is

probably the best thing we can do for the future of the world. Last year [2008] when

things unraveled, I think a lot of us were very surprised that people who understand

economics couldn't agree on what was happening; and as I like to tell my faculty in

economics, it's not enough just to be the economist; you have to understand a lot about

human behavior in order to figure out what's going on in the world. I think a variety of

skills, how to relate to human beings, how to understand human behavior and that's one

of the reasons I think it's so important for people to study art and literature to be familiar

with culture because you can’t understand human behavior if you don't understand those

things.

The great thing about institutions and communities is that we are all educating

each other. And the fact that somebody says ‘Well, that's a perfectly lousy idea” is

always an invitation to exchange ideas and to try to demonstrate in compelling ways why

people may be wrong. The most exciting aspect of being in the academy is being alert to

the possibility that things can be done differently and better and knowing that it is our

task to make sure that we challenge society to question itself, to overturn things that are

unjust. And there’s no more exciting place to me for that reason.

Simmons is leery of the university undermining its role by going too far. The

world is full of bad information, and higher education must contribute thoughtful answers

250

to the problems facing the world. That comes from careful consideration of different

views and ideas, the kind of environment that increasingly exists only at universities.

Every community made up of human beings is a collection of differences, a union

of disparate identities, opinions, and individual and group interests; and invariably these

differences interact in a puzzlingly varied cross-cutting way, and as they do the need for

process of resolving and reconciling differences comes urgently into relief. The question

of who legitimately leads that process and how reconciliation can be affected to the good

of the whole is frequently a nearly imponderable question.

When we ask ourselves why we do not do better in resolving conflicts, we should

look in part to the very limited attention we pay to these very emotions and impulses. The

supremacy of knowledge is incontestably central to human advancement; yet it appears

increasingly likely that no matter how much we advance, how long we extend life without

a more studied approach to how we form and sustain healthy social beings able to live in

and shape safe and robust communities, this so-called human age will fail us. And so

even as universities enable advances in science technology, medicine, the humanities,

and other disciplines, I hope they will pay greater attention to the way that they prepare

students to live with and resolve conflict and to imbue in those who follow them a love of

peace and a respect for others. The creation of an ideal community of respect across

difference is a goal worth setting, and it is also a goal worthy of presidential leadership.

Even learning to respect other fields and different forms of scholarship and creativity has

not come easily to the Academy where strong opinions exist about the intrinsic worth of

certain fields as opposed to others. Well known is the bias that has hampered the access

251

and advancement of different groups in the Academy. A campus environment that

recognizes and gives little quarter to such bias would be an excellent point of departure

for modeling how differences among us can not only coexist but also create

extraordinary opportunities for enhanced learning.

Of course it is an accepted convention that differences of perspectives across

groups can lead to sharp, uncomfortable and often unresolvable interactions. The reason

that one should avoid engaging across groups around difficult or sensitive topics such as

race, religion or politics is a long-held and oft-stated view; but this approach, it must be

said repeatedly, is extremely limited in practicality. The avoidance of overmeasure to

engage with others on difficult topics requires us to live in segregated circles in which we

can freely express our views and opinions without offending or alienating others. The

separation interests and the closeted expression that such segregation used to afford are

frankly no longer possible in the world linked intimately through communication and

travel. Whether through the unsegregated social media platforms or the omnipresent

multifarious communication devices, able to expose secret speech and behavior, the walls

we have relied on in the past to hide our secret thoughts and biases invariably come

down. And when they do, we have insufficient knowledge and know-how to assuage the

horror we experience at the apparent depth of the divisions they reveal. The permission

we tacitly give to the construction of partitions of association is especially dangerous

today not because the problems revealed are greater or the solutions needed more

elusive but because today's society offers more powerful enablers of the kinds of

behaviors that could ultimately lead to a fatal breakdown of community.

252

At the heart of the challenge of advancing our country in new and positive

directions is the long smoldering sense among many that we remain an unequal society,

unequal in terms of treatment, unequal in terms of opportunity, unequal in terms of

perception ability and worth. The effect of this unequal standing and lack of respect led

Lyndon Johnson to call the effort to establish full human equality a battle. In our time, I

see no better site to join that battle than universities, and I see no better generals for that

battle than university presidents. Great universities so adept at selecting and enhancing

the intellectually fittest achievers must go beyond providing the means for the most gifted

members of society to advance to prominence in their chosen fields. They must advocate

consistently that academic and professional excellence encompasses not merely a

standard of scholarship and achievement but also a standard of living responsibility and

generously. Not merely excellence as a professional but excellence as a human being

striving for compassion, seeking to understand difference, supporting important common

aims. Let us hope that as educational delivery modes multiply, we’re able to impart these

qualities to those who will never be required to be physically present in a diverse

educational community.

According to Simmons, the constructive work that must be done to perfect the

union lies in activities that help us to understand how to improve and maintain balance.

We must persevere even when virtually every personal impulse and individual group

interest propels us in the opposite direction.

As we get caught up in the very practical issues to save the world from

destruction . . . . What we’ve got to remember to do is to think about the way that we all

253

link together as human beings and find a way to communicate that. To draw people from

very disparate parts of the world together because systems will never solve the problem if

we don’t do that. So, whether it’s with Iran or North Korea or Russia or any other part of

the world, if you can’t make that human connection, then our future is still at risk no

matter how good we get at solving problems ostensibly.

We all know that once you get to be successful you’re living in communities in

which there are very little diversity, frankly even now. And unless you make a conscious

effort to get out of this small world that you dwell in, then you really don’t learn that

much about what’s going on in the world; so I think that if you were to become president

of the United States or head of any nation, your influence is still circumscribed by who

you are as a human being and your capacity to reach other human beings because you

still have to convince people.

So, how do you build those skills and work across these divides and help people to

see you at that very, very human level that helps you gain entry into their way of thinking

and their way of living and their way of functioning? That’s a skill that however good we

are as universities, as much knowledge our students acquire, they have to have those

skills as well to be successful in solving these problems.

According to Simmons, in order for societal change to happen community support

is essential.

It’s extremely important as a minority that we be able to walk through the world

with some confidence in ourselves, and what helps us to feel that confidence usually

comes from our community. So, it's also important to understand the importance of that

254

kind of support. I am fond of saying to people, ‘You know, we can be critical in the

context of supporting each other. We need to learn to do that better; but most of all, given

what each member of that community faces, we've first of all an obligation to provide that

support.’ I think mentorship is so important. One of the things to think about is the kind

of mentorship that we want to sustain. Is it a mentorship that's professional, a mentorship

that is psychological support? Is it a mentorship that encompasses all of that? And I think

being clear to people about the kind of mentorship we want them to provide makes it

possible to be much more effective.

As an eyewitness to and participant in a civil rights movement that in hindsight

was ever so elegant, well-organized and eloquent as to garner worldwide support, I ask

myself not only why these recent events are happening so frequently and seemingly so

ubiquitously and yet why there is so little momentum to build more robust processes for

the formation of healthier integrated communities and the restoration of broken ones. I

have to ask, ‘Does the misconduct of frat boys singing an offensive song about Blacks

lynching merit the same attention as police misconduct with regard to African American

men? Does a style commentator’s comments about an African American hairstyle or a

chef’s comments about Blacks merit extensive news coverage?’ Not to my mind; yet

highly exploitative media treat such offenses as fodder for hysterical reporting, in such a

world there's little respite or recovery from an onslaught of slights, slurs and attacks

against groups. justice

255

Summary

This chapter was a discussion of Simmons’ personal ethos on being the first

African American President of an Ivy League, her style of governance, not changing who

you are, the role of parents, students, education as a movement, women and girls, the

future of young boys and civility. Messages of social injustices reverberated throughout

this chapter, were intended to appeal, educate, convince, inspire, and galvanize us to

combat social injustices.

256

Appendix B

Dr. Simmons’ personal achieves included:

• 1959 Certificate of Attendance from E.O. Smith junior high school1962-1963 o Top ten percent of high ninth class 1959-1960

• Phillis Wheatley Senior high school commencement booklet o Showing Ruthe Jeanne Stubblefield graduating with highest honors

• 1967 Dillard University newspaper, Courtbouillon o Year that Dr. Simmons graduated after Dillard refused to graduate her

because she did not meet the chapel attendance requirement • Letter from The White House thanking Dr. Simmons for participating in the

Makers documentary event 2013/Brown • Thank you letter for providing funding to Darfur projects 2007/Brown • Letter to Professor Chinua Achebe for being awarded the Man Booker

International Prize • Thank you from the International Olympic Committee, the Salt Lake Organizing

Committee for participating in the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Torch Relay 2002 • Letter from The White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton for participating in

discussion on the women’s rights movement and providing advice and insight as First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared for the 150th Anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls 1998/Smith

• Text of Dr. Simmons’ remarks at Afro-American Studies at Princeton University 1995/Smith

• Note from Supreme Court of the United States, Chambers of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “Brave on becoming an AAAS Fellow.”

• Picture of Dr. Simmons, Cornel West and Toni Morrison • Boston Globe article announcing American Academy of Arts and Sciences

inductees • The Brown Daily Herald 2001 Dr. Simmons inauguration

o 2012, Simmons’ final year, student opinion remain favorable o After 31 years, program in Afro-American studies gets dept. status

• Washington Post article, Education’s Golden Door/2012 • Rhode Island news: Brown president’s gift figures to help Providence math

students 2007/Brown o Simmons made personal donation of $25,000 to help purchase graphic

calculators for the entire ninth-grade class at Hope High school • Harvard University Gazette, Phi Beta Kappa, Simmons moves audience with her

life story • Grapeland Messenger 2002, her hometown paper discussing her inauguration to

Brown. • George Street Journal (A publication for the Brown University Community) 2001,

Teaching, learning at heart of Simmons’ inauguration

257

• Article New York Times, 2001, The Fresh Princess Diaries-The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess

o Simmons listed as a one of the BAP Legends • The New York Times March, 2001, Givers Unmasked: March 8- The United

Negro College Fund and the Greater New York Inter-Alumni Council gave their 57th anniversary dinner. The event raised $1 million. Dr. Simmons attended

• The New York Times February, 2001, Givers Unmasked: February 7- Associated Black Charities, which represents volunteer groups that provide health and human services in New York, held its annual Black History Markers Award dinner and dance. The event raised more than $500,000. Dr. Simmons and Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson was in attendance.

• Parade magazine, 1996 Lessons from some of America’s most successful women • Essence August 1996 article on Simmons • Grapeland Messenger, Grapeland (Houston County Texas) December 1995, paper

Smith College inauguration • Houston Chronicle November, 1995 • Article on Simmons (president of Smith College) returning to Houston, Texas for

a fundraiser • News Smith-Smith College 1995, First Thoughts from the Ninth President

(written by Simmons) • Princentonian 1995 announcing inauguration of Smith • Ms. Magazine 1995, From the It’s About-Time Files • The Christian Science Monitor 1995, From Poverty to the Helm of Smith College • The Louisiana Weekly, 1994 Dillard Alumnus Ruth Simmons Named President

of Smith College • Princeton Weekly Bulletin. 1994 Smith College Selects Simmons as President • The Atlanta Journal 1994 Q&A on the News, Spelman ‘primed’ new Smith lead • The Providence Journal-Bulletin 1994, Smith College Chooses Black Woman as

New President • USA Today Life 1994, Simmons to Lead Smith College • Richard Times Dispatch 1994, Princeton Official to Lead Smith College • Daily Hampshire Gazette 1994, About Smith College’s New Leader • The Boston Globe 1994, Black Woman Chosen to Lead Smith College • New York Times 1994, New President at Smith • The Times1994, Smith Woos Princeton Vice Provost • Spelman Spotlight 1990, The search is over: new provost is here • The Journals of Blacks In Higher Education 1994/1995 • The Philadelphia Inquiry 1995, Smith’s new president gets her bearings • American Academy of Arts and Sciences Bulletin 2011 • Inclusion letter on 02138’s the Harvard 100, list of most influential alumni today • Ebony 1995 • Newsweek 2006, Lessons We Have Learned • Smith College Sophian 1994

258

• The New Yorker November 1, 2004: In 2004, Richard Avedon decided that he would try to capture a sense of the country in the midst of a crucial Presidential election campaign. He had traveled across the country and photographed over fifty sessions, when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on September 25th, dying six days later. The unfinished work, entitled "Democracy 2004", was presented as a 32-page portfolio in this issue of The New Yorker for the first and only time

• Texas Monthly 2003, Head of the Class • Times 1970, The Law, Norbert Simmons (Dr. Simmons’ husband article/photo) • Vanity Fair, The Women, Seven Sisters • The Touro Synagogue Foundation invitation to attend 60th Annual George

Washington Letter Celebration, 2007 • Touro Synagogue speech • Letter of thanks from The Women’s Conference 2009 • Speech, The Uncomfortable Dualism: The Survival of Universities and the

Challenge of Conscience • Bard College A Weekend Conference in Celebration of Chinua Achebe’s 70th

Birthday, 2000 (program and Dr. Simmons’ speech for the event) • Glamour 1996 Women of the Year • Texas Monthly 1999, Ebony and Ivy • USAir magaizine • BHMagazino 2008 (foreign magazine) • A mind Is… A Publication of the United Negro College Fund 2001 • Brown Alumni Magazine 2001 • Rhode Island Monthly 2010 • The Transatlantic Project at Brown University 2012 • Beethoven’s 9th: A Joyful Tribute to President Ruth J. Simmons 2012 • Alpha Kappa Alpha, Honorary Members Induction • The Historic Charles St. AME Church Women’s Day 2001, Soaring on Wings,

Honoring Dr. Ruth J. Simmons • ACE Lifetime Achievement Award 2001 • 2001 Black History Makers Award • The CBCF Chairs Award • 2003 Hello Friend Honoree • Announcement of The Fannie Stubblefield Scholarship • The Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in Arts Education • 23rd Anniversary SCLS/W.O.M.E.N. INC Drum Major for Justice Awards

Observance • Smith Presidential search committee criteria • List of broadcast mentions 1994 • The Daily Princetonian 1994, Smith College chooses Simmons as finalist in

search for president • Associated press NYC metro wire 1994

259

• The Washington Post 1994, First Black President Chosen for a ‘Seven Sisters’ School

• The Houston Post 1994, Ex-Houstonian to be first black president of elite Smith College

• Brown Medicine 2012

260

Appendix C

261

262

263

Appendix D

Interview Protocol

Influences 1. What are some of the important messages you received growing up that shaped your

life today? 2. Was there a personal and family expectation for college? 3. Who were your mentors in your life?

The Journey 4. How and why did you get involved in administration

a. What led you to administration as a career path? 5. What influenced your decision to become college president?

a. When did you realize that you wanted to become a college president? b. When did you think it was plausible?

6. Can you tell me what the most significant influences in your life have been to lead you to this position?

a. Can you tell me a story or give an example about this important event? 7. Tell me about your support system as you moved up the professional ladder? 8. What specific obstacles did you overcome/deal with as you progressed through your

career, professionally? As President

9. What was the most difficult aspect of your job? 10. What was the most pleasurable aspect of your job? 11. In your opinion, was race a factor shaping interactions between you and your senior

administrators (i.e. deans and vice presidents)? 12. When issues of diversity were discussed on campus – did you feel that there was a

different expectation for you? 13. I envision this dissertation as a source of information for those young administrators

and faculty who might want to move into top level administrative jobs and chart individual presidential career paths but lack the direct mentorship from a Black perspective – So three questions?

a. What are skills/attributes that they may need to learn that cannot be articulated/understood from your CV?

b. What would you like to impart to those individuals about navigating the higher education structure?

c. What is it going to take to see an increase in the number of Black women in leadership positions at Research 1 and selective institutions?

Conclusion • What legacy did/do you want to leave? • Is there anything else you would like to share that we have not already covered? • Would you be willing to participate in another interview? • Would you be willing to answer questions via email? • Are there any other people you would like for me to interview?

264

• May I contact you if necessary to clarify/augment answers? • Thank you for your participation in this study.

265

Appendix E

Dr. Simmons and I Timeline

• October 27, 2011 Initial email sent to Dr. Simmons • October 27, 2011 Dr. Simmons responded: I would be unable to do an interview

this year but could possibly find time after June 30, 2012 • May 4, 2012 Reached out to Dr. Simmons again • May 4, 2012 Dr. Simmons responded: Patricia, I have taken on some additional

obligations for next year. It now appears that I will not be able to participate in your project. I wish you the best with your dissertation

• May 4, 2012 I responded with a “Thank you” • June 4, 2013 Reached out to Dr. Simmons one last attempt • June 4, 2013 Dr. Simmons responded: Patricia, it will be difficult arranging a

time but if you want to give it a try, we can work toward that end. • February 7, 2014 Began arranging visit to Brown University • February 20, 2014 Finalized travel arrangements • March 24, 2014 Visited Brown University • April 8, 2014 Dr. Simmons requests phone interview • April 11, 2014 Sent Dr. Simmons interview questions for her review • April 14, 2012 Request for interview to be recorded but Dr. Simmons responded:

I'm sorry but I do not wish to provide an opportunity for verbatim quotes. For my own thesis I interviewed without recording.

• April 15, 2014 Conducted phone interview with Dr. Simmons o Dr. Simmons agreed to second interview

266

Appendix F

Dr. Simmons Timeline

• 1945 Birth Grapeland, Texas (youngest of 12) • 1950 moved to Houston, Texas entered public school

• Started borrowing books from community center • Sister thought something was wrong with her because she read all

the time • Was inspired and coached by teachers (Ida May Henderson

• Asked her mother if she could go to college one day • 1960 Mother passed

• Entered Phyllis Wheatley High School • Drama teacher Vernell Lillie recognized her talent and drive • Lillie convinced Simmons she was college material • Teachers wrote to Dillard asking for Simmons to be awarded a

scholarship • 1963 Left for Dillard University

• Awarded scholarship to study drama • Switched major to French

• Active on college newspaper staff to cry out against injustices • Became active member of the Civil Rights Movement and battled

the university over organized religion • 1965 Attended the Unvirsidad International in Mexico

• Hand picked by the Dillard president to study at Wellesley for a year • Came to admire Wellesley president Margaret Clapp who helped

her change her notions of gender • 1967 graduated summa cum laude from Dillard

• Awarded Fulbright fellowship to study French in Lyons, France • 1968 Got Married and began her family • 1970 attended Harvard University for masters in romance languages and literature

• 1973 attended Harvard University for doctorate in romance languages and literature

• Assistant professor of french • 1973 University of New Orleans Assistant dean of the college of liberal arts • 1977 California State University Adminstrative coordinator of National

Endowmnet for the Humanities liberal studies • 1978 Acting director of Internatl programs and visiting associate professor of

Pan-African studies • 1979 University of Southern California Assistant dean of the graduate school • 1982 Associate dean of the faculty • 1983 Princeton University Director of studies

• 1985 Acting director, Afro-American Studies

267

• Revamped the program • Sought scholars such as Arnold Rampersad, Toni Morrison,

Cornel West • Her resolution of the impasse created when

Morrison refused to submit a résumé to Princeton as a condition of her employment: Simmons, revealing her characteristic combination of determination and pragmatism, wrote it herself

• 1986 Assistant Dean of the faculty, Associate Dean of the Faculty • 1990 Spelman College Provost

• Revamped faculty review process • 1992 Princeton University Vice Provost

• Civil Rights Complaints Sought at Princeton by minority students • Authored The Simmons Report

• 1995 became first African American in the United States to head a college in the national rankings’ upper tier, Smith College

• Smith college graduated more black women than before • 1996 Simmons is named one of NBC Nightly News' "Most Inspiring Women";

one of Glamour magazine's (December 1996) Women of the Year; one of CBS's Women of the Year

• Campus Climate Working Group is established to encourage dialogue on campus regarding race relations and diversity

• Simmons initiates institutional self-study and challenges the college to envision its character in the 21st century

• 1997 Poetry Center is established, bringing to campus each year an impressive list of poets

• Ruth Simmons is one of only five college presidents in the United States to receive $150,000 in discretionary funds from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation from its Presidential Leadership Grant program

• The innovative Kahn Liberal Arts Institute begins taking shape • Created Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem by

partnership with New York City high school • 1998 Simmons is invited to join First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and

prominent women academics for a discussion at the White House on the history and significance of the women's rights movement

• Simmons is named by Vanity Fair (November 1998) among "America's Most Influential Women: 200 Legends, Leaders and Trailblazers"

• Simmons addresses a formal assembly of the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a lecturer at the invitation of House Speaker Thomas Finneran

• Simmons is honored for her contributions to the cause of equal opportunity by the National Urban League in New York

• Smith launches Praxis, a program that ensures that every student will have access to at least one paid internship during her undergraduate career

268

• 1999 Picker Program in Engineering and Technology, the first engineering program at a women's college in the United States, is launched

• President Bill Clinton names Simmons to the Women's Progress Commemoration Commission

• Smith hosts a national conference on racial and ethnic diversity, "What's Next? American Pluralism and the Civic Culture: Challenges and Proposals"

• Simmons pays a visit to Hamilton High School in Los Angeles as part of a recruiting mission to urban public high schools

• 2000 A $250 million capital campaign -- at the time of its announcement the most ambitious fund-raising effort ever undertaken by a liberal arts college -- is announced

• Simmons joins Goldman Sachs Group Board of Directors • Construction for Smith's $5.6 million parking garage and a $35 million

renovation/ expansion of the Fine Arts Center begins • Meridians, a peer-reviewed journal devoted to publishing outstanding

scholarly works by and about women of color, publishes its first issue • Preliminary design for a new $20 million campus center is introduced and

reviewed • A $5 million renovation of Lyman Conservatory is planned • When Brown first approached me [in 2000], my instinct was to turn

them down. But a friend told me I had a duty to accept, as no black woman had ever been president of an Ivy League college and I owed it to the African-American people to be a role model. To show what could be achieved. (as cited in Crace, 2006, para. 3)

• 2001 Brown University announces its new president: Dr. Ruth Simmons • Simmons makes a memorable appearance on a scooter in 2001 senior

Rally Day show • Smith hosts a national engineering summit to discuss strategies for

encouraging women to pursue careers in technology • Raised Smith’s endowment from $400 million to $900 million • Simmons assumes the presidency of Brown University

• 2002 Corporation unanimously approved the Initiatives for Academic Enrichment, precursor of the Plan for Academic enrichment

• Brown hires architectural firm Kliment & Halsband to write a master plan for campus growth

• 2003 First need-blind class enters Brown, removing the ability to pay from the admission equation

• 2004 Corporation approves detailed and ambitious Plan for Academic Enrichment • Liquor magnate Sidney Frank ’49 gives Brown $100 million to enable

scholarships for the neediest students • 2005 Dillard University Katrina Hurricane Relief Assistance • Pembroke Hall renovated, housing the new Cogut Center for the Humanities to

stimulate interdisciplinary research

269

• Promoted campus discussions about the lack of diversity of opinion on campus

• Campaign for Academic Enrichment, Brown’s most ambitious fund-raising drive ever, launched with a goal of $1.4 billion

• 2006 Five-story, 169,000 square foot Sidney E. Frank ’49 Hall of Life Sciences opens

• McCormick incident: How Brown betrayed one of its students • 2007 Medical School renamed the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown

University in recognition of a $100 million gift from Alpert’s foundation • After studying a report on the subject by a faculty committee, Simmons

makes recommendations for acknowledging Brown’s role in slavery • 2008 World economic meltdown prompts modification of Plan for Academic

Enrichment. New Faculty hiring scaled back, Graduate School growth postponed, and existing buildings renovated rather than new ones built. Brown downsizes staff

• 2009 Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World opens on the College Green in renovated Rhode Island Hall

• Appointed by President Obama to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships

• 2010 Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, Brown’s first real student center, opens in Faunce House

• Simmons ends tenure on Goldman Sachs Group Board of Directors • $1.61 billion raised, “Boldly Brown” the Campaign for Academic

Enrichment, concludes • Wrote to Avi Gross Schaeger’s parents. Avi was a student, soldier,

future peacemaker who died in a car accident • 2011 Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts opens

• Simmons forms a campus committee to review the status of ROTC at Brown

• New Medical Education Building opens in Providence’s Jewelry District, creating a home for the Warren Alpert Medical School

• After review of athletics, Simmons reduces number of admission slots for athletes and orders higher pay for coaches

• Simmons announces she will resign at the end of the academic year • Renovated Metcalf Laboratories opens, providing home for Cognitive,

Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences • 2012 Simmons concluded her term as president of Brown University

• Joins Princeton Board of trustees

270

Appendix G

Dr. Jackson Correspondence: Initial Contact From: Jones, Patricia Yvette Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 Dr. Jackson, My name is Patricia Jones, I am currently a doctorate student in Higher Education Administration at the University of Tennessee. I would like to begin corresponding with you so that I can interview you in the near future. I know you have been told time and time again that you are a legacy for being an African American Woman President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute the nation’s oldest technological university, I will not repeat it. Instead, I will say you are a phenomenal woman! I to aspire to one day be a college president. In making this decision I have been positioning myself so that if a leadership role or position presents itself I am prepared. I have attended and graduated from the HERS Institute in Denver this past summer and plan to attend other leadership training. Currently, I have been researching African American women and the college/university presidency. More specifically, how African American women get to the presidency, what the journey has been like for them and what advice they can give to those who come after them to stand on their shoulders. See we are all standing on the shoulder's of giants and if it were not for those who came before us we would not have all that we have today or be where we are today. Realistically, it is because of you that other women not only African American but minority women in general, will strive for presidencies at all types of higher education institutions. This is what I want my dissertation to be on. I am at the beginning phase of the dissertation process. I just selected my committee head and committee members. I complete my coursework this summer and will take my comprehensive exam in the fall. I estimate I will begin collecting data (conducting interviews) in 2014. I am reaching out to you in hopes that you will allow me to interview you. If you agree to participate, as I proceed through the dissertation process I will keep you informed via email. I will forward you the purpose statement, problem statement and other documents as I go through the dissertation process. As I near the data collection phase I plan to completely work around your schedule. So, whenever you are free to meet I will travel to where you are to meet with you. Since I will be in the dissertation phase I will be free to travel to wherever you are. Please keep this in mind. Also, we have technology and can use programs such as Skype.

271

***My projected data collection time frame as of now is fall/summer 2014. This is tentative and depends heavily upon all of the steps leading up to the data collection. Interviewing you is very important to me and I'm not one to just give up on the opportunity to meet you. The ability to share what you accomplished so that those minority women who come after you is what drives me to pursue this interview with you. As I stated prior we stand on the shoulders of giants and you are one of those giants please allow us to stand on your shoulders. Thank you again and again, Please let me know if you are willing to allow me to interview you and know this will be for my dissertation. Thank you every so much for taking the time out to read this. Know that I wish you the best in all of your future endeavors for I know you are not done yet! Until then, Patricia Jones Mon 6/17/2013 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Patricia: Thank you very much for your request to interview our President, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. Unfortunately, we can not accommodate your request. As you can imagine, we receive literally dozens of requests such as yours over the course of a year, and sadly, it is not physically possible to support them all due to her travel and engagement schedule. Many of the issues which you want to address have been covered in writings and published statements by Dr. Jackson. I direct your attention to rpi.edu/president/profile.html, which includes the text of many of her speeches. You are welcome to cite these remarks with appropriate attribution. Best of luck to you with your endeavors. Respectfully,

272

Appendix H

Dr. Simmons Correspondence: Initial Contact On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 Jones, Patricia Yvette Dr. Simmons, My name is Patricia Jones, I am currently a doctorate student at the University of Tennessee and the Director of the Office of Enrollment Management and Retention at Knoxville College in Knoxville Tennessee. I've read you are retiring and I would like to begin corresponding with you so that I can interview you in the near future. I know you have been told time and time again that you are a legacy for being the first African American Woman President at an Ivy League University, I will not repeat it. Instead, I will say you are a phenomenal woman! I to aspire to one day be a college president. In making this decision I have been positioning myself so that if a leadership role or position presents itself I am prepared. I have attended and graduated from the HERS Institute in Denver this past summer and plan to attend other leadership training. Currently, I have been researching African American women and the college/university presidency. More specifically, how African American women get to the presidency, what the journey has been like for them and what advice they can give to those who come after them to stand on their shoulders. See we are all standing on the shoulder's of giants and if it were not for those who came before us we would not have all that we have today or be where we are today. Realistically, it is because of you that other women not only African American but minority women in general, will strive for presidencies at all types of higher education institutions. Please let me know if you are willing to allow me to interview you and know this will be for my dissertation. Thank you every so much for taking the time out to read this. Know that I wish you the best in all of your future endeavors for I know you are not done yet! Until then, Patricia Jones

273

From: Simmons, Ruth Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette I would be unable to do an interview this year but could possibly find time after June 30, 2012. Thanks so much for your interest. Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Simmons, Ruth Thu 10/27/2011 That would be great. I am soooo excited. Thank you sooo much. Please let me know the best way to remain in contact with you. Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Simmons, Ruth Wed 2/15/2012 Dr. Ruth, I want to remain in contact with you to continue the discussion of us meeting and the interview. Please let me know if you are still interested in me interviewing you and the possibility of us meeting prior to the interview. I will make time to meet with you whenever your schedule well allow :) Thank you, Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Thu 11/7/2013 Dr. Simmons, Let me begin by saying how thankful I am for you. You have been patient and remained in contact with me throughout this process. Thank you! I know you are very busy. This is just a quick update of where I am in the dissertation process. On yesterday I passed my oral defense of my comprehensive exam. I will now begin writing my chapter one then the proposal. I will send you copies of both once complete. I will keep you informed. I can't wait for the day I actually get to meet you! Thank you for everything once again.

274

Follow Up May 4, 2012, at 11:02 AM Jones, Patricia Yvette Dr. Ruth,

I would like to continue our discussion of us meeting and me interviewing you for my dissertation. Please let me know if you are still interested in being interviewed and the possibility of us meeting prior to the actual interview. I will make time to meet with you whenever your schedule well allow :) I want to give you the opportunity to get to know me as well. Below you will find our initial communication regarding the interview. I know that you are extremely busy (I know this is an understatement) and have a lot going on. So, please note the projected start date of my dissertation is around Fall of 2013 but I want to remain in contact with you until this time and hopefully meet with you prior when possible. Please keep in mind that, I will work around your schedule and we don't have to meet this year if you are unable. Thank you in advance, From: Ruth Simmons Sent: Friday, May 04, 2012 3:25 PM To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Patricia, I have taken on some additional obligations for next year. It now appears that I will not be able to participate in your project. I wish you the best with your dissertation. Jones, Patricia Yvette Fri 5/4/2012 3:37 PM To: Ruth Simmons Thank you

275

Second Interview Attempt Jun 4, 2013 Jones, Patricia Yvette Dr. Simmons, The last contact we had you informed me that you would not be able to participate in my project due to other commitments. I want to properly explain where I am in the dissertation process. I don't think I did this prior to now. I am at the beginning phase of the dissertation process. I just selected my committee head. I complete my coursework this summer thereafter I take my comps. I estimate I will begin collecting data (conducting interviews) in 2014. I am reaching out to you in hopes that you will reconsider and allow me to interview you. Please let me know your thoughts. I truly appreciate you and all you do : ) Please also keep in mind when it is time, I will work completely around your schedule and we will use technology so to make the process smoother or come meet with you where ever you are. Interviewing you is very important to me and I'm not one to just give up on the opportunity to meet you. The ability to share what you accomplished so that those minority women who come after you is what drives me to pursue this interview with you. It is said that we stand on the shoulders of giants and you are one of those giants please allow us, others to stand on your shoulders. Thank you again and again, Below is my original message. Tue 6/4/2013 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Patricia, it will be difficult arranging a time but if you want to give it a try, we can work toward that end.

276

Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Wed 6/5/2013 Dr. Simmons, First and foremost, THANK YOU! I cannot thank you enough. It is truly an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to meet you and interview you. As I proceed through the dissertation process I will keep you informed via email. I will forward you the purpose statement, problem statement and other documents as I go through the dissertation process. As I near the data collection phase I plan to completely work around your schedule. So, whenever you are free to meet I will travel to where you are to meet with you. Since I will be in the dissertation phase I will be free to travel to wherever you are. Please keep this in mind. Also, we have technology and can use programs such as Skype. ***My projected data collection timeframe as of now is fall/summer 2014. This is tentative and depends heavily upon all of the steps leading up to the data collection. I will be in touch. Thank you once again Dr. Simmons! Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Thu 11/7/2013 Dr. Simmons, Let me begin by saying how thankful I am for you. You have been patient and remained in contact with me throughout this process. Thank you! I know you are very busy. This is just a quick update of where I am in the dissertation process. On yesterday I passed my oral defense of my comprehensive exam. I will now begin writing my chapter one then the proposal. I will send you copies of both once complete. I will keep you informed. I can't wait for the day I actually get to meet you! Thank you for everything once again.

277

Brown University Visit (Personal Archives) Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Fri 2/7/2014 Dear Dr. Simmons, I began corresponding with you in the fall of 2011 to express my interest in having you participate in my dissertation. I am contacting you to arrange an initial meeting. I will work around your schedule and will travel to meet with you. If you are still agreeable to the study, please provide me with a time we might talk to discuss the logistics of a my visit. My study will explore your experience as the first African American president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of Brown University. I believe your story will provide hope and inspiration to other African American women coming through the educational pipeline as well as a model to follow in striving to reach their career goals and aspirations. This research will also provide an important and credible narrative about your experience in academia, which has gone untold in academic research. Sincerely, Please note I am copying Patrick Biddix, my committee chair, on this email. Ruth Simmons Pallas-Viola, Helen Fri 2/7/2014 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Dear Ms. Jones, Ruth Simmons passed your email to me for reply. Since she is on academic leave this year she asked that you set a time with me to visit our office for a review of her archive files. This will have to be done before July as the files will be moved at that time. I am in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 4. You can call me or email me at any time. I am never far away from the computer. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best, --helen

278

Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Pallas-Viola, Helen Fri 2/7/2014 Helen, I want to thank both you and Dr. Simmons for responding so quickly. I will definitely be contacting you to make arrangements to visit. Please give me time to gather myself. I am so nervous and excited. I will contact you soon. Thank you again! From: Pallas-Viola, Helen Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Hi Patricia, as I mentioned to you I am only in on Tues/Thurs and you thought correctly that the inclement weather had me in and out. Please call me so we can set up a time for you to come to the office to go over the archive files. Best, --helen Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Pallas-Viola, Helen Thu 2/27/2014 Hello Helen, I hope all is with you. I am in the process of planning my trip and am following up to see if you have heard anything about possible lodging for me during my visit? Please let me know. Thank you. Jones, Patricia Yvette Wed 3/26/2014 Dr. Simmons, thank you sooooo much for allowing me access to your archives. There is a wealth of information that I will be able to use. This has been a very productive trip. I arrived in Providence on Monday, met with Helen on Tuesday and reviewed documentation located at the library today. It has been a very busy three days. I will be leaving for Knoxville tomorrow at 10:00 am. Please know I am still very interested and wanting to interview you be it, in person or over the phone. I will work entirely around your schedule so please let me know when you are available. I will travel to where you are. After conversing with Helen I asked her if she would interview as well. She has agreed so I will be returning to Rhode Island to interview her. We have not set a date as of yet but I know we will definitely wait until the weather is nicer. Thank you again for everything!

279

Interview Ruth Simmons Pallas-Viola, Helen Tue 4/8/2014 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Hello Patricia, Ruth is wondering if you will be available for a telephone conversation the beginning of next week. Monday or Tuesday, preferably in the morning. On Apr 8, 2014 Jones, Patricia Yvette Helen, I will also need to know how much time I will have to interview Dr. Simmons. Thank you. From: Helen Pallas-Viola Sent: Wednesday, April 9 To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Patricia, Tuesday morning at 9am Eastern Standard Time. NO recording. Use your time wisely. Be concise. Have your questions ready. Please give me your number. She will call you. Best, --helen Jones, Patricia Yvette Fri 4/11/2014 To: Helen Pallas-Viola 1 attachment: Interview Questions Dr. Simmons, my study will explore your experience as the first African American president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman president of Brown University. Some of the things I hope to address in my study are things that have influenced you personally and professionally, your journey to the presidency and your experiences as president. Please find attached questions I would like to cover during this interview. The number I can be reached at on Tuesday morning at 9 am EST is-----. Until then and thank you for everything!

280

Recording of Interview Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Mon 4/14/2014 Dr. Simmons, I want to ask you to reconsider allowing me to record the interview on tomorrow. I want to make sure that I give an accurate and thorough account of what you share in the biographical narrative I will be creating. Having the ability to record the conversation will allow for me to capture all that is shared in comparison to solely taking handwritten notes where I may miss important facts that need to be shared. My over goal is to be as transparent as possible and by doing so I want to include you in this entire process. I will provide you with a copy of all interviews so that you can change, add or expand upon things. I will also provide you a copy of the transcript of the biographical narrative and my dissertation. Collaboration and member checking is very important to me. We are partners in this process. This is your story and all I am doing is sharing it so that others can read, learn and hopefully take something away from reading it. Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you for everything and I look forward to speaking with you on tomorrow. Thank you again. Apr 14, 2014 From: Ruth Simmons I'm sorry but I do not wish to provide an opportunity for verbatim quotes. For my own thesis I interviewed without recording. Jones, Patricia Yvette Mon 4/14/2014 To: Ruth Simmons Thank you for responding and considering my request. Until tomorrow : ) Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Tue 4/15/2014 Dr. Simmons, thank you for taking the time to speak with me this morning and for all of the guidance you provided. I will do as you suggested and review everything I have and can find. After completing a thorough review I will be contacting you to arrange an interview focused on your presidency. Thank you again and have safe travels.

281

Second Interview Request Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Simmons, Ruth Fri 12/19/2014 Dr. Simmons, I am reaching out to you to schedule our final interview. My hope is that we can meet in person for this interview. I am looking at a time frame of late January or early February to visit. I know your time is valuable, so please let me know your availability. I’m more than happy to work around your schedule and travel to meet with you. I look forward to hearing back from you! I wish you and your family a Happy Holiday Season! Helen Pallas-Viola To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Wed 12/24/2014 Dear Patricia, unfortunately, Dr. Simmons is unavailable for a follow-up interview with you. Her calendar is very constrained in the year ahead as she will be traveling in and out of the country. Dr. Simmons sends you her best wishes and success as you move forward with your work. Regards, --helen Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Helen Pallas-Viola Fri 1/9/2015 Dear Helen, sorry for the delayed response. This is very unfortunate news but I understand. I know Dr. Simmons is very busy. I appreciate both of you for everything. As I continue writing, I would like to know if it is possible to email Dr. Simmons (only when necessary) with clarifying questions since I will be relying solely on archival data from this point on? Also, does Dr. Simmons want me to send her a draft of my dissertation for her review once complete and prior to submission? Please let me know. Admittedly, I am stubborn, with that being said, I will reemphasize I am still very hopefully I will one day meet Dr. Simmons. I am more than willing to travel to meet Dr. Simmons be it to hear her speak at a conference or to meet for lunch. I am a world traveler and will be in France and London this spring so who knows :) Thank you again for everything!

282

Institutional Review Board Request: IRB Form Signatures Needed Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Helen Pallas-Viola; Ruth Simmons Sat 4/18/2015 Dear Helen and Dr. Simmons, I hope this email finds you both well and in good health. Here is a quick update of my progress thus far, on February 4th I successfully defended my prospects and since then have been implementing recommendations and edits made by my committee. This in and of itself, has been a battle. Thereafter, I will begin to analysis the data and write the last several chapters of my dissertation. I am in need of both of your signatures. I need both of you to sign an informed consent form. Helen, I am asking you to sign the form as well because I will paraphrase something you shared with me the very first time we met. I remember you telling me, "It says a lot when a person comes back to work for the same person." This continues to echo in my mind as I write. Please note prior to now, I furnished copies of all of our email correspondence to the University of Tennessee's Institutional Review Board which was accepted and I was permitted to conduct my study. It wasn't until recently, I was contacted by the Institutional Review Board requesting that I submit signed copies of the informed consent for renewal purposes. Please find the consent form attached. Once the form has been signed it can be scanned and emailed back to me. Lastly, during our last exchange of emails I was informed that Dr. Simmons was unable to do a final interview. I want to take this opportunity to make one last appeal for a final interview. A final interview is significant to me because I want to make sure Dr. Simmons' story (HerStory) is told in its entirety. The first interview had a great impact on my PhD and I believe, no, I know, that a second interview will have an even greater impact on the telling/sharing of Dr. Simmons' HerStory. I am aware that some believe "a good dissertation is a done dissertation" but for me this is more than a research study, project or a dissertation to be completed for a PhD. This is a HerStory that needs to be told/shared. En esperant sincerement que vous accepterez cette interview et que nos chemins se croiseront un jour. I will be in France April 21 so if you email me and I do not respond immediately I will respond as soon as I can or as soon as I get back on May 5th. Thank you both again for all of your support! Bien cordialement,

283

Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Helen Pallas-Viola; Ruth Simmons Tue 5/5/2015 Dear Helen and Dr. Simmons, this is just a follow up to the email I sent prior. Please note, I am in need of both of your signatures. I need both of you to sign an informed consent form. Helen, I am asking you to sign the form as well because I will paraphrase something you shared with me the very first time we met. I remember you telling me, "It says a lot when a person comes back to work for the same person." This continues to echo in my mind as I write. Please note prior to now, I furnished copies of all of our email correspondence to the University of Tennessee's Institutional Review Board which was accepted and I was permitted to conduct my study. It wasn't until recently, I was contacted by the Institutional Review Board requesting that I submit signed copies of the informed consent for renewal purposes. Please find the consent form attached. Once the form has been signed please scan and email back to me as soon as you can. Thank you, Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Helen Pallas-Viola; Ruth Simmons Fri 6/5/2015 Dear Helen and Dr. Simmons, this is just a follow up to my previous emails. I am in need of either one of your signatures on the following attached informed consent form. Once the form has been signed please scan and email back to me. Thank you, Ruth Simmons To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Sat 6/6/2015 I will sign and return. Thanks. Jones, Patricia Yvette Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Simmons, Ruth Sun 6/7/2015 Thank you.

284

Simmons, Ruth To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Sun 6/7/2015 See the attached (Permission Form). Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Sat 6/6/2015 Thank you. DISSERTATION RELATED CORRESPONDANCE To: Simmons, Ruth Mon 7/27/2015 Dr. Simmons, Please find attached a copy of chapter four (HerStory, a brief history going from your childhood to your retirement from Brown University) of my dissertation for your review. In order for me to have sufficient time to implement any changes you may have, prior to my defense, I will need the document back by September 1st. Unfortunately, I have some tight deadlines seeing I am preparing to defend and graduate this semester and, my chair, Dr. Biddix, will be in Montreal working on a Fulbright from September 1-November 15. Thank you for everything. Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Fri 9/11/2015 Dr. Simmons, Do you consider yourself to be a/an: feminist, black feminist, activist, transformative leader or change agent?

285

Final Attempt For Second Interview Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Simmons, Ruth Sat 10/10/2015 Hello Dr. Simmons, I will be visiting Austin, TX, November 15-20! If you are in Texas during this time please let me know, I would love to meet you! Thank you. Ruth Simmons To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Mon 10/12/2015 My plans are not set yet; I may be going to Atlanta to visit my son. Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Mon 10/12/2015 Thank you for responding. We could also meet in Atlanta. My fiancé is presenting in Texas and invited me to come with. He knows how important you are to me so he was hoping you and I could meet in Texas since the opportunity presented itself. If you're not going to be in Texas but in Atlanta, I reside in Knoxville, TN so I could come to Atlanta easily, that is, if it wouldn't interfere with you visiting your son. Please let me know. Ruth Simmons To: Jones, Patricia Yvette Thu 10/29/2015 I am traveling during those periods, Patricia. So sorry. Jones, Patricia Yvette To: Ruth Simmons Thu 10/29/2015 Thank you for responding. Have safe travels and happy holidays. Also, if there ever comes a time when you are free and available to meet please let me know. Even if it's years from now. Yes, meeting you is that important to me.

286

Appendix I

287

288

289

290

291

292

293

294

295

296

297

298

299

300

301

302

303

304

Vita

Patricia Yvette Jones was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania to the parents of

Curtis Patrick Jones and Leona Yvette Body. She was the second child in the Boyd

family that consisted of four girls and two boys.

Her formative education began at Lincoln Elementary Lorain, Ohio. Her

secondary education was at Southview High School. After her high school graduation,

she entered into the United States Army for four years and continued on to complete four

additional years in the United States Army National Guard.

Immediately after joining the United States Army National Guard she attended

The Ohio State University. In May 2006, she would receive her undergraduate degree

from The Ohio State University in Psychology, minor in Sociology.

Upon graduating from The Ohio State University, she went on to graduate school

at the University of Tennessee in August 2006. While at the University of Tennessee, she

received her graduate degree in May 2008 in Sports Psychology, Sport Studies. Whe

continued on to pursue her doctorate at the University of Tennessee in Higher Education

Administration and expects to receive her degree in May 2016. After graduation she will

continue on her hero’s journey.